Happy Birthday… and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you and your families. I hope you survived the Holidays and wish you much prosperity in 2009. I have decided that I am going to blog once a week, Sunday. It will be a “Weekly Beer Review” so to speak. I realize this blog, the first under the new schedule, is already late.

December 27th I love birthdays! I love my birthday and I love other people’s birthdays, I love having a reason to get together with friends. Nothing makes me happier than enjoying some social lubricants with my best friends. But, as we get older (birthday’s will do that to you) we find it harder and harder to get everyone together at one time. Birthdays are the one time when most people try the hardest to get together. Why? Is it guilt? Do we feel ashamed for missing birthdays? I don’t know. I don’t care. Whatever gets us all together is what’s most important. And that's why I love birthdays!
I especially like my birthday. I’m not really sure why. Many people I know actually try to avoid their birthday. Maybe they don’t like getting older, maybe they don’t like being the center of attention. I love mine. Maybe it’s because it falls between Christmas and New Years and often gets lost in the shuffle. Whatever the reason, it’s the one day of the year when I can be selfish. I get to say what we do, I get to say where we go. My wife lavishes me with attention. What’s not to like? Sure another year has gone by, but that’s a good thing. Considering the alternative, I’ll take it. My birthday is December 30th and this year I decided to team up with a good friend whose birthday happens to fall on December 28th. So we had a two for one sort of deal. We picked Saturday, December 27th at Jake O’Connor’s for the festivities. There were about sixteen of us and we all huddled together downstairs around a bunch of tables nestled in front of the fireplace. It was a cozy little scene and we all had a wonderful time. The beer scene wasn’t much to write home about but I’ve seen worse (see: sports bar). I certainly wasn’t complaining as I enjoyed my “English” and “Irish” beers. I put those in quotes because all of them were undoubtedly brewed somewhere on this continent. Probably Canada and shipped across the border so the product can still read Imported. While a little deceiving, this is not a bad thing. Beer is one of those products that doesn’t ship well. It doesn’t like excessive handling and/or temperature changes. If you have ever been to Europe, most likely the Budweiser you had (or saw) was brewed right there in Europe as well. This is common, practiced the world over. But enough about beer production and distribution; on to consumption. Since there was nothing at Jake O’Connor’s that I hadn’t tried before, I went with a variety of old standbys. I enjoyed one of each of the following; Smithwicks, Boddingtons, Harp, Murphy’s Stout and Guinness. Now, I am not an advocate of binge drinking so I must note these were consumed over the course of many hours. Having had all of these brews before, I wasn’t terribly excited by any of them but that didn’t stop me from enjoying them. Truth be told, many of these beers were my gateway beers. You know, the ones I enjoyed while converting from a light beer drinker to the full flavored craft brew I enjoy today. I was pleasantly surprised by the Murphy’s Stout. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before but I do believe this one was not on nitrogen. It was a nice change of pace, very warm and toasty, perfect for a cold night by a fire.

December 30th My actual birthday. It has become tradition to visit one of my favorite bars every thirtieth of December - Sweeney’s Saloon in St Paul. I’m not quite sure how it all got started but I believe it had something to do with visiting an old friend. He lives in St Paul and I think my birthday was the only day we could get together. It was either 2001 or 2002 and it was my first visit to Sweeney’s. I’ve been there on my birthday every year since. This year it snowed… again… as it has done often this December. My wife reluctantly picked me up at work after unsuccessfully lobbying to skip Sweeney’s this year *gasp*. I know, I know, this qualifies me for worst husband of the year, asking her to risk her life so I can go drink beer. But hey, I looked at the radar, the snow had almost passed. Besides, she would have felt horrible for my having missed one of the days I look forward to most. I saved her that guilt. This year it was Carolyn and I and both our parents. We played a little bit of musical tables, moving three times before finally settling into one of their church pew booths. It was a nice relaxing time in that warm old pub with some of my favorite people. It wasn’t until after I got home that I realized all my beers were dark, very dark. I kicked the afternoon off with a Summit Oatmeal Stout. I remember when this beer was first brewed. It was intended to be a limited release that would only be available for a short time. Customer demand was so great they decided to keep making it. This seems to pop up around town during the winter months and I’ve only ever seen it on draft. I was blown away when I first tried this beer and it still amazes me. Sweet, chocolately and smooth. So tasty, yet so easy to drink. I look forward to a few more of these this winter. I followed the Oatmeal Stout up with one of my favorite Bell’s offerings, their Best Brown Ale. I have always enjoyed this beer. Toasty like a brown ale should be with some caramel sweetness to it and hoppy as well. This was the lightest colored beer I had and it was still nearly opaque. Not uncommon, but on the dark end for a brown ale. Next came the only disappointment of the evening… Victory Stout. I’m not sure if this was the Storm King Imperial Stout or not. It wasn’t listed as such, only as Victory Stout and I didn’t ask. It started out well, with a very nice nose full of hops, but the taste was disappointing and reminded me of lavatory hand soap. Weird, I know. I would like to try this again on a fresh palate as I usually enjoy all of their products. I finished off the evening much how it started… with a Summit. This time it was their Winter Ale. I needed a sure thing after the Victory and this was it. Delicious. Every. Time. Everything a winter warmer should be, dark, malty and full bodied. This beer was what I needed resonating in my memory as we made the 20 mile drive back to Eden Prairie on sloppy roads. That and maybe a catheter.

January 1st Believe it or not New Years Eve was not a big beer night for me. I didn’t have any beer at all in fact. Just a couple of glasses of red vino with my seafood ravioli. I’m not sure but we may have been up late enough for the ball to drop in Times Square but not much later. However, I did welcome the New Year with a couple of new beers. New year… new beer… seems appropriate. After trying out our new skates at Centennial Lakes Carolyn and I stopped by the new Chatterbox Pub in Edina. I did not realize that they had their own house beers. I always get excited when I see something on tap that I’ve never had before. While the commercial tap and bottle list was exceptional, I decided to opt for said house beers. These beers, I was told, were brewed by Point Brewing Company in Stevens Point Wisconsin exclusively for Chatterbox Pub. The Dubbel sounded good, as did the Empyreal Pale Ale, but I went for the Magnanimous Brown Ale instead. The menu defines magnanimous as noble and generous in spirit (or something like that), but I found this to be anything but. The color was a light watery brown, not unattractive but not at all inviting. I took a whiff and nothing. No evidence whatsoever of what I was about to imbibe. I tasted it and again, nothing. This beer was about as blah as any can be. No aroma and no flavor. That’s not to say it was a horrible experience, just disappointing. It was very drinkable, I could easily drink these all night, but I’d rather drink something else. I imagine this beer would be perfect for the light beer drinker looking to establish himself as a sophisticated beer drinker. It certainly looks better than the ubiquitous yellow beer but it won’t shock your taste buds. Dictionary.com defines magnanimous as generous in forgiving an insult or injury. Well, I forgive quickly and forget even faster so on to the next. Being a fan of Belgian Wit beers I had to try the Chit Chat Belgian White Ale. While usually enjoyed in the summer this was a redeeming beer in the heart of winter. A very well done Wit, true to style. I really enjoyed this one, right down to the Curacao orange peel. This particular Chatterbox opened for business only about a month ago and the neighborhood welcome, we were told, is overwhelming. New Year’s Day was no exception. It was much busier than I expected. Everyone’s supposed to be hungover claiming “I’m never going to drink again!” Well, there was one group in the corner who appeared to be still partying from the night before. A lot of weathered clothes, tousled hair and tired eyes. They were still having fun though. Contrasting them was a quiet row of booths filled with families, couples and friends. I saw people ages 10-60 and seems to welcome all ages. If you’ve never been, their niche is games. They have card games, board games and video games. I saw a couple of thirtysomething guys playing Sega PGA Golf and the rowdies in the corner were playing Super Mario Bros. My wife added “This place looks like a living room” and she was right. Game counsels everywhere and couches and art work straight out of your Grandma’s basement. Everyone was comfortable. As we sat there playing battleship and drinking our beers I felt glad. Glad to be there and glad to see such a fun hip place succeeding so near the dining saturated and sometimes stuffy 50th & France district. I would rate this place E for Everyone.

As we welcome 2009 I am excited for what is in store for this year. Every year the craft beer scene seems to expand exponentially. New breweries and brewpubs pop up and new products from existing brewers hit the shelves. I cannot wait to see what happens, it’s going to be a great year.