January 15th, 2009 It’s freakin cold! When is it ever going to warm up? The goof on the roof says it should be above zero again on Saturday but that doesn’t help us today. After spending the day indoors at the world famous (locally ignored) Mall of America we appropriately spend this below zero evening watching a sport played on ice. The Wild are in town which means another night out in St. Paul. The evening started out great, bellied up at Alary’s with Andrew and some of his college buddies. Alary’s is a great place for guy’s night since they are probably most well known for their… ah… pizzas. And what goes better with beer on a frozen day than a slice of frozen pizza. Can’t argue about the two dollar Grain Belt taps either, or “Premos” as the bartenderesses called them. Parking was free as was the shuttle to the game. How can you beat that? I avoided the expensive beers at the arena and saved my pennies and palate for later. After the game we caught the free shuttle back to Alary’s. It was so packed that we turned right around and headed to the newest of the trifecta of Bulldogs - Lowertown. I had heard a lot of great things about this new beer bar so I was excited to try it. At the exact moment that we walked in the Gophers hit a jumper to tie Wisconsin completing the comeback and sending the game into overtime… and boom goes the dynamite! The crowded bar exploded with cheers. Here I thought they were just giving us a warm welcome. I immediately fell in love with this place. I love the big bar in the middle of the room. I love the high ceilings and the old hardwood floors. And I loved the huge windows connecting the two. It felt very New York City to me and I heart NY. I enjoyed many a good beer while here. From Greenwich, England I tried the Meantime IPA. Less IPA’ish than I was expecting. More malty and possibly higher in alcohol but still with plenty of hops. A beer so complex and enjoyable that it prompted ultimate beer taster Michael Jackson to proclaim ”For heaven’s sake, where’s dinner?” It was here that I also had a Two Brothers Cane and Ebel. I’ve always enjoyed this hoppy rye treat. At one point I even thought I could smell rye bread, perhaps it was just my imagination. Finally, before checking out and going home I had a Rush River Bubble Jack IPA. I always seem to like this on tap, but this time it tasted a bit different. One thing I have recently learned is that I am hypersensitive to diacetyl. Diacetyl is a yeast by-product that is produced during fermentation. However, after all the sugars are fermented diacetyl is usually consumed by the yeast leaving imperceptive levels in the beer. It creates a buttery or butterscotch flavor as well as a slickness on the tongue if too much remains in the beer. Much of the time this is considered a flaw but there are times when it is appropriate. I happen to enjoy it, I just don’t if it is supposed to be in Bubble Jack. I personally wish this was how the beer tasted all the time, but most of the time it has a much cleaner finish to it. Right or wrong, I enjoyed the heck out of it. Well it was getting late, it was VERY cold and I had to work in the morning so we called it a night. It was off towards home for us. I will certainly venture back here soon.
January, 17th 2009 I’d love to start out by saying that tonight is our annual trip to Manny’s Steakhouse, but this is even rarer than that. In fact this is only the second time in all my life that I have ever been. The first time was in their old location with all food and drinks paid for by a client. Tonight would be my first trip to their new location in the newly renovated Foshay Tower. Before dinner I wanted to show my family this great new lounge also in the Foshay tower. It’s called Prohibition and it’s located on the 27th floor of the 30 story building. I’ve read that the 27th and 28th floors were to be Wilbur Foshay’s residence and office when he built the building back in 1929. However, he never actually lived there because shortly after the building was completed the stock market crashed, his fortune was wiped out and the building went into foreclosure. To add insult to injury, Foshay attempted a sort of Ponzi scheme to raise capital to save the building, but it was discovered and he spent 1932-1947 in prison. He died relatively unknown in a Minneapolis nursing home in 1957. Today the 27th floor has been remodeled and turned into an upscale lounge keeping much of the same African mahogany woodwork that Foshay installed. The lounge is aptly named because the country was in the midst of prohibition (1919-1933) when the building opened. Well that’s enough history for now, back to present day. We grabbed a drink at the bar conveniently located adjacent to the elevators and went in search of seats. We were lucky enough to find a little lofty corner just above the bar… floor 27 ½ we’ll call it. This is definitely a lounge in every sense of the word. No crowd, no mingling, just small parties quietly conversing over some smartly made cocktails. My brother had what he is calling “…the best Maker’s Mark Manhattan, this side of Manhattan”. My parents and wife went with wine (please excuse the accidental alliteration) and I of course had beer. They don’t have any draft lines but they did have a decent but predictable list of imported and specialty bottles. I decided to go with the always satisfying Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Never disappointing, this hoppy yet refreshing American Pale Ale was just the thing to kick off a family night of social celebration. As our reservation drew near we made our way back down to the main floor where the restaurant was. As both places are owned and operated by the same team we were allowed to bring our drinks down to the restaurant with us. A big plus! However they didn’t carry the Pale Ale so I had to think locally and switch to Summit Extra Pale Ale. This is never a bad thing as this EPA is about as solid as any beer can be. Remarkably consistent just about everywhere. We enjoyed our meals and, of course, over ate but we didn’t over order. We were blessed with great service and a waitress that spoke honestly about the sizes of the side dishes. I must also compliment the wait staff upstairs. I’ve always received service with a smile up there. At $7 a bottle, the prices are as steep as the architecture, but the service is certainly down to earth. While we were up in the lofted area it would be easy to forget about us but we never did have to wait with empty glasses for our server. Some may call the atmosphere pretentious but I found it to be very friendly and inviting. We had a great night and a great experience.
January 18th, 2009 Nothing much going on today. I had to work in the morning at my part time job and in the afternoon we had my brother and a mutual high school friend and his wife over for dinner. The one highlight of the night beer wise was the inaugural pour out of my new altar bar. The only beer I have in the kegerator right now is my Indulgences Chocolate Porter, so I brought it up and hooked it up to the new altar bar. It was fun to finally drink from the new faucets (there I go with the alliteration again). In the long run I plan to refrigerate the altar bar but as of now it is not and this caused a problem. Carbon dioxide will remain dissolved in beer at low temperatures but as the beer warms up it will come out of solution. I have about five feet of hose between the keg and the tap and as the beer in the hose warmed up, the CO2 came out. So every time I went to pour another beer it would start with a lot of foam. It was quite a bit of waste but still fun to finally use the altar bar. I was glad to have my bro home for the inaugural pour. To my surprise, he and Nate had more than one pint a piece. I was thinking it was going to be an all wine night for everyone. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but to brewers… refills are.
January 19th, 2009 As they say, all good things must end and today is the end of what has been a great extended week. As we celebrate King and his Dream, the four of us gathered for one last meal together. Being a fan of other restaurants owned by the Blue Plate Restaurant Company I was excited to try the Longfellow Grill. As a biker, I would ride by the place while biking along West River Road but never made a stop. Groveland Tap impressed me last summer and my wife and I always enjoy the Edina Grill so my expectations were elevated. After being told we’d have to wait a while, we were seated rather quickly. It was only 11am but it was a holiday so I justified the Summit Winter Ale. I’ve got to get as much of this as I can before it’s gone. There are a lot of seasonal beers out during the winter but this one can be found on tap at many places and is welcomed any time of day. I enjoyed all the food we had and was especially impressed with the Meatloaf Hash & Eggs. They tell you to only eat your mother’s meatloaf, but who are “they”? The Breakfast Tostadas were out of this world as well, crunchy, spicy and succulent. As Guy Fieri would say… “Off the hook!” I would recommend this place for breakfast any day. After breakfast, I wished my brother well and mom and dad ran him to the airport. I went home and brewed. This time an IPA with Simcoe hops. Looking forward to trying it.
At eleven days this was one of the longest trips home for Andrew and we still didn’t find time to do all the things we wanted to do. Probably just as well, it will give us that much more to look forward to next time and it stopped the wallet bleeding before it got any worse. Now that Andrew is back in New York I feel like the holiday’s are finally over. As the days get longer and February just around the corner, we are reminded that winter doesn’t last forever in this state. It comforts me to start thinking about my other great love… baseball! After all, pitchers and catchers report in just 17 days! BEER THIS!
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