Turning 40

This past week I celebrated my 40th birthday.  Strangely, where 35 freaked me out, this year's slow tick of the death-clock didn't seem to affect me much.  I'm guessing that the big-freak at 35 was because I didn't really even start my official career until age 30 and hadn't settled in for the long haul yet.  I'll also admit that since then I have gathered a fair number of friends who are older than me, and seeing them remaining cool and fun makes me feel like there is hope!  I worry a bit about becoming behind the times, but so far I can still talk video games, books, and music with the young folks.  I still have no comprehension of Twitter and hate songs with auto-tuning, so maybe this is the start of the drift to irrelevancy... Or perhaps just maintaining good taste! 

For my birthday week we did a lot of fun things to celebrate, and with all this fantastic stuff to look forward to I really had a great time! 

The festivities began on Tuesday with a Tyranena beer dinner at The Happy Gnome.  This is a small Wisconsin brewery that was ahead of the big craft beer boom curve, but that I've not really paid much attention to recently.  I did try their Painted Ladies pumpkin beer as part of my pumpkin beer blogging experiment, but that may be the only beer of theirs that I've had in 2 years.  I was pleased overall with the beer quality, and the well balanced drinkability of all of them.  The Sheep Shagger was one of the best Scotch ales I've had in a while...though the label design's shepherd with a lamb on his lap looks way too melancholy...  As usual we had a great time hanging out with our frequent-flyer beer dinner friends, as well as the wonderful staff of The Gnome.  The food was amazing as always!

On Wednesday, (my actual birthday) Sj had a meeting in the evening and my plans were to sit at home moping alone with a beer and my PS3.  My friends did not agree with this plan!  Mike Lebben, as well as Bryce and Elise came over to share beers and keep me company.  They all brought some cool beers for me, and I took this opportunity to crack a couple of rare beers that have been languishing in my cellar.  We had the incredibly tart and complex Cantillon Kriek, as well as a 2012 Black Tuesday to celebrate!  Lucky for Sj, I saved some of both for her tardy return!  It was fun just hanging out with friends on a school-night.

Saturday I went over to Andrew's place and we played Shadowrun, a game I haven't played since I was about 15 years old.  Its a roleplaying game from the 1980's in which the futuristic world is run by evil competing corporations who hire players for espionage, extortion, and various other misdeeds.  So the dystopian future of the 80's is really just the 2000's?  Though in the game, magic has returned to the world including elves, dwarves and trolls... I'm still waiting for that to happen!  This was a fun way to spend an afternoon--basking in the old-school geek glory of sitting around a table and rolling dice to kill things.

During this summer's CONvergence in Bloomington Sj and I donated money to Fearless Comedy Productions at a level that allowed for Courtney McLean and The Dirty Curls to play our event.  What event?  Well, why not have a 40th birthday party for me?  This was the ball that started rolling down the mountain, soon to become an avalanche ending in an amazing and crazy birthday bash.  Dan and John from Enki Brewing in Victoria kindly rented out their brewery for my nefarious deeds.  We had food catered through Chipotle, which seemed to be a big hit. 

Since the party was on a Sunday, and draconian Minnesota liquor laws don't allow taprooms to sell beer then, we were unable to drink Enki beer at the event.  I was able to furnish my own brews though and had six on tap using the JAB jockey-box.  The crowd favorites seemed to be the Mild Mannered, the JAB de Garde and the ill-fated Pumpacolypse Brau.  I managed to empty three kegs to make room for upcoming brews! 

Later in the evening, the band arrived and performed two sets of their deliciously raunchy music for our entertainment.  If you have not heard of them, you should check out their website here.  Watch a video and prepare to have your mind blown.  I'm amazed at how a group of (mostly) gals can sing such disturbing lyrics whilst maintaining a straight face!  I was a bit concerned that my friends and family would be horrified, but I think the band was a hit.  They sang one naughty serenade to Andrew and Janelle's 17 month old boy, who stood in rapt attention for the entire song.  They sang me a wonderful new birthday song that reminded me of the disturbing fact that my parents once had sex, and congratulated me on not being aborted!  Watching the crowd's reactions was almost as good as watching the band--I know I had tears running down my face from laughing so hard.

We're with the band...

The party turned out amazingly and I thank the band, the guys from Enki, and everyone who came to share the fun.  Special thanks to my best friend since Kindergarten, Bryan Keehl, who drove all the way from Chicago to take part.  Bryan gave a great speech that got both of us choked up and rivaled the one he gave at my wedding!  He also acted as my beer mule--bringing me some awesome Three Floyds beer from our field trip out there last month.  Thanks to all those who brought gifts (you really didn't need to, but I appreciate them) and cards.  My friend Marty the blacksmith forged me a heavy bottle opener in the shape of battle-axe that I carried around like a jaded king's scepter most of the night.

Both still ticking!

The point of this story you ask?  As I hit age 40 I find myself in the enviable position of having everything that I really want out of life.  I'm married to a wonderful woman who loves me and keeps me on track.  I have a busy job that I really love to do, and that provides me with the money to not worry about the little things as much.  I have a ton of great friends and a healthy family.  My hobbies of homebrewing and beer-blogging are an outlet for my creative side.  Now that I've reached this stage, I find that (for me) life is really about the experience.  Life is a series of experiences, some good, some bad, but all lead you along the road that becomes your history and your future.  Why do I love beer so much?  Each beer I have is an experience.  It will never be the same again, that special combination of company, location, food, etc.  Beer is meant to be shared--as are all great experiences like concerts, theater, sporting events, and even birthday parties.  The company and the event means more than the liquid in the glass.  This is the reason I continue my long-winded babbling about beer and beer events--I'm attempting to put into inadequate words the feeling that these things engender.  This is also a journal and remembrance of a series of (mostly) enjoyable events that make up the current chapter of my life.

To all my friends, family and other readers: Stop and enjoy those moments that make up your life.  Here's to another chapter and the next 40 years!

American Craft Beer Week: One Week Among Many

So first off, let me be honest: I try to live each week like it is Craft Beer Week.  But for this official nod to the growing craft beer industry, I figured I'd go over what the week meant to me.  And Sj drove me around a lot so she gets props too! 

I think it was about three years ago that MN had its first CBW, which was pretty small and only involved a few brew pubs and mostly college bars.  That first one was not well publicised and seemed fairly thrown-together, but was still a cool thing for the budding local beer scene.  That year and the next they had a stamp book that people would try to get completed at each participating bar or pub and attempt to win prizes like a New Belgium bike.  Living out in the hinterlands I didn't even come close to finishing one.  During one trip down to 7 Corners for this we ended up at Preston's where they tried to tell us that the oxidized and completely flat cask beer they were serving was the way cask beer was supposed to be.  Things have come a long way in the last few years!  Now Preston's has been replaced by the very beer-centric Republic, and they actually know what a cask is. 

With the now wide-spread availability of craft beer in the Twin Cities there is no way that the old stamp method was going to work this year.  On the positive side, this points out the massive amount of options we beer geeks now have to find new and cool beers.  On the negative, this week seems less cohesive and is more of a collection of single-shot tastings/events.  I am actually surprised that many of the big beer places like Republic are not really involved in the official events, though many of them are still having special beers and tappings on their own.

Monday:  Not able to drink Monday so this is a wasted day!

Tuesday:  Sj and I both had Tuesday off, so we went to Uptown for haircuts and to refill on spices from Penzey's.  Having finished early, we walked in the 100 degree heat over to Republic Uptown for our first craft beers of the week.  Sj had a Curious Traveller Shandy (not really beer...) and I had the very pleasant and newly released Surly Diminished Seviin.  I think that this is a second runnings beer from the mash of Surly 7 (which is freaking awesome by the way...) and is a light and fruity Belgian Blonde or Single.  Perfect for a crazy hot day. 

After killing some time indoors, we braved the heat stroke to walk back to our car and then travelled to St. Paul for part two of our day.  Our favorite restaurant and pub in the TC: The Happy Gnome!  This particular week was the Grand Teton Beer Dinner, featuring the dynamic brewmaster Rob Mullin.  I have not been a huge follower of this brand in the past, but due to the always amazing food we signed up for this one anyway!  I was pleasantly surprised.  Rob's relaxed but funny talks between dishes were worth the price of admission.  We also got to meet the young (really can you legally drink yet?) and earnest son of the new brewery owners who lives in St. Paul.  The beers were better than I remember and the quality control and packaging have all been improved over the past few years.  My favorite of the beers was the Oud Bruin, I'd buy that one any day.  As usual, we had several friends with us for dinner and met some other folks at our table to talk to as well.  A great evening and a perfect kick-off to a beer filled week.

Wednesday:  This was our big outing for the week.  We spontaneously picked up our friends Matt and Anna and forged ahead to the 7 Corners area.  We started at Town Hall Brewery for one of their gratuitously yummy burgers and the special release of the Wee Jack.  This wee heavy aged in Jack Daniels barrels is really strong and malty, bordering on too sweet, but worth a try.  They also had the Russian Roulette (an amazing Imperial stout with cocoa nibs,) and this was the best beer of the night.  On our way into Town Hall we ran into Gera out on the patio, and then Mike L. inside doing some shady business dealings. 

Matt hamming it up for the camera!

While logging in all of our beers at Town Hall on Untappd, like good beer geeks, I noticed that someone had logged a Founder's Kentucky Breakfast Stout from the nearby Nomad World Pub.  So Mike joined us and our group put their trust in my beer-finding skills.  Off we wandered through the looming dusk and discovered that the Nomad did indeed have an unadvertised keg of KBS on tap.  About half of the crowd there was drinking KBS and the other half were happily downing PBR tall boys.  More KBS for us!  We sat outside on the patio watching Bocce until the hipsters got a bit too ironic for us (and smoked too many cigarettes right next to us...) and headed out in search of further adventures.

Dusk falls over Minneapolis

On the way back to the car we passed right by Republic.  Well...we might as well stop.  Sitting in their street-side patio area as darkness fell around us, we ordered a couple beer samplers and shared them around.  This evening of spontaneous pub-hopping/bar-crawling was incredibly fun and relaxing for me.  I hope that Sj and the rest of my friends had a good a time as I did.  To me this is what Craft Beer Week is all about.

Thursday:  A long day at work today and no energy left to head downtown for an event.  I did fire up my brand new Kamado Joe grill and smoked some True Cost Farm brats and fresh sweet corn over cherry wood.  Once I got the hang of regulating the temperature by messing with the upper and lower draft system on the grill things went really well.  While messing with this I sipped on one of my few remaining hoard of Surly Abrasive in its proper 20 oz pint glass.  Ahhh!  Summer is finally here!  After our smoky repast (served with a very good Greek salad made by my wife) we had Matt over to watch an episode of Game Of Thrones on the DVR.  The usual adult content and violence ensued on the big screen, paired with a tasty desert snifter of Lift Bridge Irish Coffee Stout. 

Friday:  Both of us were pretty exhausted after work and debated the merits of going out.  CBW won out and we headed into St. Louis Park to visit the SLP Trifecta.  First was the Steel Toe Brewing taproom for the special release of three barrel aged beers.  I have crowed about their English barleywine, Lunker,  previously in this blog, and any excuse to have it again is worth the effort.  This time we got to taste a sampler of barrel aged Dissent stout, barrel aged Wee Heavy and Lunker.  Generous pours of amazing beers.  Sj and I both put the Wee Heavy slightly higher on our lists than Lunker!

Next up was a "quick" trip over to the Four Firkins (under a mile away.)  Pretty much the entire crew was working this particular evening.  I love going in there and getting to talk to Alvey, Michael, Ian, Bryan and Doug!  They were sampling an eclectic mix of beers including the Great Divide 19 (made with birch sap and aged on birch chips), the newly released Surly Bitter Brewer (one of my favorite session beers), and the Indeed Shenanigans.  We bought some beers while there, including a couple of bottles from Moonlight Meadery.  I'll probably do a blog entry about mead at some point in the future.

Finishing off the Trifecta, we headed over to McCoy's Public House for dinner.  Bar Manager, Nick, kept us entertained and handed us a newly renovated beer list.  We split a bucket of tater tots, and then moved on to Thai pizza and shrimp atop cheesy grits.  A perfect finish to a great night out.

Saturday:  Sj had to work Saturday so I was on my own.  I headed back down to Steel Toe for the Size 11 Triple IPA release.  I entirely missed this beer last year when it came out and really wanted to get a few bottles this time around.  They started selling right at noon, and I arrived within 5 minutes of that start time.  There was a cash line into the rear entrance to the brewery and a longer credit line into the front/taproom area.  I brought cash.  I got 6 bottles with little trouble and took them back to my car.  One of these is ear-marked for my mom, another for Rob Wengler, and one more to share at the next JAB meeting.  The other three are mine-all-mine!

The taproom still had the barrel aged threesome from the previous day on tap, so I had to brave the crowd and have those again.  Between all the folks snaking their way into the taproom for bottles of Size 11 and the crowd returning from dropping off those bottles, this tiny taproom was a sardine can.  But a sardine can with truly awe-inspiring beers!  I ran into Garrett and his son (who needs to come to a JAB meeting sometime and hang with us oldsters) and apparently missed Keith by minutes.  Great minds drink alike!  That was the extent of my CBW experience for Saturday, but I have some great Size 11 in the fridge now.

Sunday:  OK, by this day even I was feeling a little worn out from beer exploits.  Also there has been a lot of travel into "town" involved and gas jumped over $4 a gallon this week.  I almost let Sunday go, but saw a facebook post about brunch at the Northbound Smokehouse.  We had to go into EP anyway to pick up my freshly tailored suit, so why not go a little farther?  The food was pleasant but not quite as good as the lunch sandwiches had been on a previous trip.  The double IPA was pretty good too.  Once back home I settled into study mode and did that for the rest of the afternoon/evening.  By dinner time Sj and I worked on a growler of Town Hall Maibock, making me sad that I missed the Blessing Of The Bock event this year, but happy that I still got to try this wonderfully balanced lager.

Overall:  A lot of beer events and venues are to be found throughout the Twin Cities these days, especially during Craft Beer Week.  I'm guessing I could have found nearly the same amount of cool tappings, breweries, beer dinners, etc on nearly any week.  This was a nice excuse to take some time off from study and also to see good friends and spend some time with my wife.  Best thing of the week?  Probably our group Wednesday outing, but the barrel aged beers at Steel Toe were not to be missed.  Thanks again to Sj, and to my other friends!

Up Next:  Either an interview or possibly some reviews of places we stop at in Kansas City, MO...stay tuned!  And make sure to watch the Limited Release episode from my last blog post if you haven't yet!

Fulton & Great Lakes Happy Gnome Beer Dinner

For those of you who get jealous easily or hate foods that are not Hot Dish, you may want to move on the next blog post now!  My wife and I end up at most of the Happy Gnome beer dinners and have been doing this for years now.  We have met some amazing friends by sitting at tables with strangers during these events.  We have also really been able to get to know the staff at The Gnome well which really brings our enjoyment of the dinners to the next level.  Over many dinners we have met a multitude of brewers, brewery owners, local reps and distributors:  all with interesting stories and personalities.  Where else can you talk one on one with non-local brewers from Goose Island, New Belgium and Alaskan?

This month was brought to us by an unlikely combination of breweries: Fulton (a small local brewery just 2 years old) and Great Lakes (a large regional brewery out of Cleveland, OH.)  Apparently the local representative for GL (Brent) hooked the brewers up together and suggested that they do a collaboration, so we have him to thank for getting the ball rolling.  Collaboration beers have been a recent trend and are a way to let brewers attempt new things and keep in touch with the craft beer community, especially for larger breweries that tend to focus on a core of flagship beers.  Mikey and Brian from Fulton went out to Cleveland and brewed this beer with Luke from GL on their 7 barrel brewpub system.  It is a baltic porter made with molasses and the GL proprietary lager yeast strain.  The release of this beer was the cornerstone of the collaborative beer dinner at The Gnome and one could feel the excitement emanating from the Fulton guys.

The dinners all take place upstairs in the Firehouse Room of The Happy Gnome, up a steep staircase that probably weeds out those who shouldn't drive after one of these events.  At the top of the stairs you are greeted by Ryan the new General Manager and directed to the beautiful auxiliary bar in the corner for your meet and greet beer.  This time we were handed two pint glasses: a Fulton glass with Sweet Child Of Vine IPA; and a Great Lakes glass with Commodore Perry IPA.  Double fisted IPA drinking from the get-go!  It was interesting trying these two beers head to head.  The GL beer is actually made with their previously mentioned yeast strain so is much more like a hoppy lager than a classic IPA, while the Fulton beer is more malty and balanced in a more English IPA style.  Both were good, but I think the Fulton won my vote this time. In fact I liked this beer more than I remembered liking it in the past.  Perhaps I'll be ordering it more in the future...especially if they start carrying it out in my neck of the woods out West.  Whilst drinking from two glasses of beer we met up with our old friends Carol and Kevin, as well as Hassan and his brother-in-law.  It is also nice to get see Molly and Paul, our regular beer dinner servers, and catch up on the last month or two...they are such great people, even while trying to pour beers, bus tables and serve food for 50 people!

Once we had settled into our seats, (always near the front so we can hear the talking once the diners start to get louder,) there was a talk about the breweries and discussion of the first few beers.  Then came the first course:  red snapper ceviche and a lightly dressed tuna tartare with watercress, dill cream and a honey-lemon vinaigrette.  Unless it is sushi I'm not much of a fish fan, but the flavors on this plate were amazing and bright.  The pairing with the malty and refreshing Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold was spot on, helping to clear the palate for the next bite.

The second course was a foie gras stuffed quail with bitter greens, root veggies and citrus jus.  Quails are very tiny birds and difficult to eat, but these were mostly deboned with just the legs and wings to gnaw on if you wanted to.  And of course foie is a freaking awesome thing to put in any dish.  The Fulton Ringer pale ale was a nice pairing with the dish.  The citrus flavored savory sauce on the bird really went well with the American citrus hopping in the beer.

The main course was a deconstructed rib eye steak of epic proportions served over creamy black lentils, house made boar bacon and smoky BBQ sauce.  Wow was this a perfectly prepared steak!  This was the best pairing of the night, showing off complementary roasty and malty flavors in the Collaboration baltic porter.  I would go out of my way for this beer and am somewhat sad that there are only a few kegs of it around.  They should have some at the Beer Dabbler this weekend and possibly some other places around town.  I'm guessing that The Gnome has some left, but I'm not sure.  I sincerely hope that the guys at Great Lakes will scale this recipe up and do a big batch next year!

For desert we were first served a roasted apple sorbet with a very flavorful walnut tuille (fancy cookie.)  That was paired with one of the small batch beers Great Lakes Loch Erie, a very smooth and somewhat sweet Scotch ale.  I'm always appreciative when breweries bring unusual or harder to find beers for these dinners.  After our intermezzo sorbet we were served a brown sugar coffee cake with cinnamon ice cream and poached pears.  Very subtle and tasty, but I was getting so full by this point that I didn't eat much of it.  Remember that gargantuan steak portion?  This desert was paired with my favorite beer of the night-- the Fulton War & Peace.  This is a version of their Worthy Adversary Russian Imperial Stout that has been dry-beaned with dark roast Guatemalan coffee from local Peace Coffee at a rate of one pound per barrel for about 4 days.  I find it interesting that they don't even grind the beans, just using the alcohol in the beer as a solvent to release the coffee flavor compounds.  I had this beer at Firkin Fest a couple years ago and wasn't impressed with it at the time, but all that has changed now.  This was apparently the last keg of the 2012 vintage around, but they will be releasing the 2013 batch soon.  I'll certainly be in line to pick some up and would recommend that you do so as well!  Perfectly balanced with a strong and smooth coffee flavor.  The beer lost some of it's power when paired with the very sweet desert so I kept them separate for the duration.

I didn't quite know what to expect going into this dinner but once I found out about the collaboration/connection between the two breweries this all made more sense.  The mix of beers served this evening had quite a bit of range and appealed to a large audience of beer drinkers.  Getting to try three rare beers was a great treat as well.  Executive Chef Scott Brink does some amazing things with food that I've only seen on Top Chef and rarely seen in action.  I always enjoy the Happy Gnome beer dinners and if you haven't been to one yet, you owe it to yourself to make the trek out there.  Next up is Lagunitas.  They sell out fast though so like them on Facebook or sign up for the e-mails so you get word early.  I'm very happy that Ryan has continued this tradition for The Gnome and really seems to be doing a great job at organizing things.

Glenfiddich Scotch Tasting at The Happy Gnome

Is it beer?  Not really.  But to make Scotch, they make a beer, then distill the heck out of it...so it counts!  I decided to try this on a whim, not being a huge fan of the Hard Stuff, but wanting to learn more about how to taste and enjoy spirits.  I have been getting more interested in oak aging my homebrewed beers and in commercial barrel aged beers over the last few years, so I'm coming into this a bit backwards.  Important things to know:  Glenfiddich is pronounced Glen-Fid-Ick, and means valley-of-deer.

The Gnome is known for beer and great food, but also has a huge selection of whiskeys and Scotches.  From time to time they do tastings or seminars and we were free this time!  They had some very tasty appetizers, and Sj and I had some food downstairs before the event.  Our friends Kevin and Carol were there too.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but this was a slick presentation with Bruckheimer production values.  They had a model in a short skirt and really-high-heeled red shoes adding eye-candy to the Scotch bottles, as well as big posters and swag.  We got Glenfiddich pens, glass droppers and a gift set of small tasting glasses to take home, along with a DVD about the distillery narrated by Mr. Big from Sex & The City.  There was a Scotsman (who currently lives in Texas) giving a talk and virtual distillery tour via a slick overhead.  This is one of the only Scottish family owned distilleries still in business.  The Spirits are aged in a mix of bourbon and sherry casks for a number of years, resulting in labeling as 12 year, 15 year, etc.

We tasted the 12 year first, aged in mostly bourbon and a few sherry casks.  Not bad, but a bit hot and burning.  Sj hated this one, and it was not anyone's favorite at the tasting.  Apparently this is one of the best selling Scotches in the world.  We also learned how to use our handy dropper to add a few drops of water to "open up" the Scotch, and I was suprised to find a significant difference in flavors.  That made the 12 year drinkable.  Later we had the 18 year, made from the same stuff but aged longer.  It certainly smoothed out, but was not my favorite despite its age.

The 15 year was very nice with a strong honey character and was a fan favorite.  We ended with a small dose of the 21 year which was quite nice in terms of smoothness and overall complexity, and has some small time on rum barrels.  None of these are the peaty smoky ones I love, but all very interesting.

As a bonus, the presenter had a single bottle of a very rare bottle of Malt Master reserve to let some of us die-hards try.  This was my favorite of the night.  What can I say, I have expensive tastes.  I will not need to spend hundreds of dollars on this though.

A very informative event and well worth the time and effort to get down there.  I'll sign up for any future sessions they do.

Stone Beer Dinner at The Happy Gnome

As usual Sj and I went to the nearly monthly Happy Gnome beer dinner last week.  With things very crazy at my work, I was happy for a break to relax and enjoy a fun evening.  As an added bonus my dad randomly came into town from Illinois and we were able to fit him into our reservation.  He has been to a couple of these with us over the last few years and seems to enjoy them.

This month was Stone, of the scowling gargoyle and "You're Not Worthy" fame.  We knew going into this that Sj and my dad might not be huge fans of the fairly "aggressive" hopping that most of the brewery's beer possess, but they seemed game and ready for a wonderful meal at least.  As with most of our dinners we sat with the usual suspects and made for a rowdy table of foodies.  The dinner is always upstairs in the firehouse room.  We were greated at the top of the stairs by the new general manger Ryan, and were happy to see that Catherine was there as well for one last dinner before moving on to greener pastures.  Good luck Catherine!  Bellying up to the upstairs bar we were given a choice of Meet and Greet beer:  Cali-Belgique the hoppy Belgian ale; or crazy hoppy 10 Year Anniversary IPA.  I had both because Molly and Paul are rockin' servers!

The food as always for freaking fantastic.  This is the ONLY place in the world I would trust to serve me aspicy steak tartare and not worry too much about E. Coli infection. 

Course 1:  The above mentioned tartare.  Yes raw beef.  But really tasty I swear.  And writing this a week later, I never got violently ill!  Served with the Levitation, a lighter bodied but still hoppy ale that did a great job of clearing the palate.

Course 2:  Bouillabaisse (way too hard to spell this correctly!)  A very pleasant sea-food stew served with grilled sourdough and dill creme, but was hammered into submission by the crazy hoppy 16 th Anniversary IPA, made with Lemon Verbena. 

Course 3:  The winner of the popularity contest for the night was the braised beef shortrib with truffled cauliflower puree and fresh grated horseradish.  Yum!  The pairing on this was amazing, and I'm fairly certain that Chef Brink braised the beef in the beer.  Pair a smoky beef dish with a strong Smoked Porter?  Crazy I say!

Course 4:  Venison loin!  Cooked to perfection and oh so tender, served atop bacon braised collard greens and corn puree.  This dish was so strong that it stood up to Arrogant Bastard Ale.  Bastard you have met your match!

Course 5:  Vanilla bean panna cotta with fennel confit and house made graham cracker.  This was a great way to finish the dinner.  Not everyone liked the fennel, but I thought it paired great with the special desert beer, the Belgo Anise Imperial Russian Stout.  Too bad I was feeling bloated by the end, and couldn't finish all of Sj's desert and beer.

I'm looking forward to the future beer dinners at the Gnome and hope that no drastic changes are made in the time-honoured traditions already in place. 

My dad!

Happy Gnome Cider Dinner!

As an early celebration of my wife's birthday I drove us to The Happy Gnome in St. Paul for the first cider dinner they have done.  The founder of Crispin was there and they brought some pretty cool things to try!  Usually Sj drives me to these dinners, but since she is such a cider fiend I let her have the fun this time...

As usual some of our friends, Carol, Kevin and Emily were there, and we got to meet a very sweet newer member of the Gnome's staff who was getting to actually eat at the dinner rather than serve.  A huge part of the fun at these things is hanging out and talking about beer, life, etc and this was one was no exception for us.  Emily had just been married, so had lots of fun stories to keep us entertained.

The Gnome used to be an old firehouse, and the upstairs area is called the Firehouse Room because of that.  When you head up the stairs you are greeted by Catherine the GM and can head over to the smaller upstairs bar for your meet and greet beer.  In this case the m&g beer was a cider: the Fox Barrel Blackberry Pear cider, which was quite nice.  Not too sweet, but certainly fruity.  From about 6-7 you talk and socialize, working up an appetite for the coming dinner.  Prior to the first course the main Minnesota distributor gave a talk about the company and went over each cider.  The usual way of doing this would be to discuss one or two at a time, but this guy kind of blew his wad by doing all the talking at once.  He was young and hasn't done one of these before, so we'll leave him alone!  The company started here in Minnesota, but the current cidery is in California, and houses Crispin and Fox Barrel.  Fox Barrel is all pear cider (perry) with some of the versions blended with fruits.

First Course!
Crab and scallop ceviche with lemon vinaigrette and wasabi oil.  This was very nice and worked well with the sweet Crispin Honey Crisp cider.  I'm not much of a sea food fan, but done at the Gnome, I'll always finish my plate!  The cider is really interesting and includes some honey in the recipe that really comes out in the final flavor.  It was the first specialty cider that Crispin came out with nearly 4 years ago when they started and was supposed to be a one-off experiment, and obviously has had some staying power.

Second Course!
Steel head trout atop a fried risotto cake and Swiss chard with side of corn panna cotta.  Yum!  Also fish, also tasty.  Paired with one of Crispin's more interesting ciders called Stagger Lee which is made with Gravenstein apples and aged for 6 months in rye whiskey barrels.  Not super alcoholic, but has a nice boozy tang to the end and is pretty tart.  I had this earlier in the year at home and wasn't sure about it, but the age has mellowed it out quite a bit.  There may be a few on shelves still, but they are done making it for the year.  They are soon coming out with a bourbon barrel aged limited release that they wouldn't tell us more about yet! 

Third Course!
Veal en crepinette.  Veal atop white beans, baby carrots, endive, and turnips with a veal demi-glace.  And topped with bacon.  Almost like a stew, this was really a hearty and filling dish, perhaps better for wintertime.  I pretend I don't know what veal is so I can still enjoy it.  The pairing on this course was the best in my opinion.  The Lansdowne cider is made with an Irish ale yeast and leaves a bit of the buttery character you see in Irish Reds.  There is also a good amount of molasses which gives this cider a darker, more complex flavor than the others.  I'm not sure I love the cider on its own, but with this hearty dish it was really perfect.  We were getting fairly full by this time, and two more courses to come!

Cheese Course!
Camembert cheese with balsamic reduction and a freaking amazing herbed cracker served with smurf-sized champagne grapes.  Being lactose intolerant sucks.  But the cracker was The Bomb.  I really liked the Browns Lane cider, my favorite of the night.  This one is made for Crispin by a small cidery in England and uses old-school English bitter cider apples.  It has a hint of carmelized sugar, but ends pretty dry compared to all the others we tried tonight.  Look for it!

"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!"

Dessert!
Warm almond torte with rhubarb confit and a cider coulis.  Also had some crazy molecular gastronomy red spheres that looked like grapes, but burst in the mouth to release strawberry flavored liquid.  Very cool technique and I wanted more of those!  Very nice pairing with the sweet/tart Fox Barrel Rhubarb and Elderberry pear cider.  That one is worth a try as well. 

A fantastic night for all!  They also let us keep both the Crispin and Fox Barrel glasses, which is awesome.  After experiencing this event from an "I have to drive us back to Waconia" standpoint, I respect Sj's driving me to all those beer dinners far more than I have in the past.  Thanks sweetie!  And happy early birthday!  September beer dinner is Stone Brewing--be there!

Happy Gnome Harriet and Lucid beer dinner

Probably my favorite restaurant in the Twin Cities is the Happy Gnome in St. Paul.  We tried this place out for the first time several years ago when they had a special mead dinner featuring the meadmaker from White Winter and Ken Schramm the author of The Compleat Meadmaker.  The food and the pairings with the meads blew me away, and my wife and I have continued to go to most of the beer dinners they have.  There is a dinner nearly every month and they try to have a brewer present for the event.  There is something about sharing tables with strangers, excellent food, and hearing a brewer talk lovingly about their beer that elevates this experience beyond the sum of its parts.  Over the years we have met several sets of good friends at these events and grown to really love the staff here. 

The most recent dinner featured two newer Minnesota breweries, Harriet and Lucid.  Neither have quite the portfolio to do this alone, but paired together they did a great job.  At the meet and greet before the meal, they served us up some Lucid Air, a nice light summery beer that is my favorite of theirs.  While sipping this brew, I was able to talk for some time with Jason Sowards of Harriet.  I've heard a lot about this guy, and it was a great time getting to finally meet him and talk brewing.  I can really get on board with his philosophy and how he has embraced art and social media to further his brewery.

First course was a freaking amazing lamb carpaccio paired with the Harriet Wodan Weizen.  And excellent course and a very good pairing.  Following this was a roasted halibut served over green curry barley floating in a lake of flavorful tomato bisque with mussels.  I'm neither a fish nor a mussel fan, but this was one of the best dishes I've ever had.  Every ingredient shone alone and in combination with the other flavors.  This was paired with the Harriet East Side IPA which is brewed every 100 batches.  Belgian IPA is not my favorite style, but this one is a bit maltier and uses European hops instead of the citrusy American hops, leading to a smoother mix of hop and yeast esters.

Course the third was a duroc pork tenderloin with amazing sides and sauces.  A fantastic dish, but couldn't compare to the previous one!  The pairing on this one was with the Lucid Dyno pale ale, and I think the food overwhelmed the beer a bit.

Next up was a truffle cheese (yum!) and the Lucid Saison.  This was the first time I had tried this beer and I think they hit the style spot on.  An excellent way to clear the palate after this creamy pungent cheese.

And last but not least was a butterscotch panna cotta with hazelnut crunch and spoon shaped tuille.  Wow!  I was very full by this time, but it was so good!  Also, the edible spoon was for looks only...do not try to scoop panna cotta with it!

If you haven't been to one of these dinners, do it now!  Not cheap, but you get what you pay for and you will have something to remember for the future.