By Myself, Yet Not Alone…

Last Friday, March 27th, I found myself in need of some good beer. I had plans to meet up with a good friend of mine at Acadia Café in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood near the U of M. They were celebrating their first anniversary in this “new” location and I had still never been. I should say it’s about time. Well, unexpected car trouble kept my friend close to home but I still wanted to check this place out. So I ventured out on my own. Not knowing the area very well I drove around looking for parking. I found myself on one-ways which darned near led me to the U’s East Bank. Before long I was back in Cedar Riverside and in the Carlson School of Management parking ramp. One flight of steps and a half a block later I got to Acadia and in the front door. Seemed like everyone else had the same idea I did. 7pm, I figured it would be somewhat subdued, a lull, a break in the action. Wrong. I find that downtown (where I work) there is usually a break on Friday evenings between the happy hour crowd and the night crowd. The bars seem to thin just a little between 7:00pm and 9:00pm. I should have known, this was a college bar, there are no breaks. Long story long, there were no open tables, no open seats at the bar and a lot of people standing… waiting. I walked right back out after quickly scanning the place, making it look like I was trying to find someone. Good news is, anything under ten minutes and the parking ramp is free. The better news, I was only a few blocks from the Blue Nile.

Al, if you are reading this, I don’t want you to feel like second fiddle. I’ve been to the Nile a handful of times which is a handful more than I’ve been to Acadia. Besides, free beer for a year is quite the temptation. If second place is a bar with Surly, Tyranena, Duchesse, Lion, Tremens and Summit then you can call me the Buffalo Bills any day. But I digress. Knowing I wouldn’t be disappointed I hauled my thirsty palate on over to The Blue Nile. The Blue Nile is home to local beer celebrity (though he won’t admit it) and bartender extraordinaire Al McCarty. If you ask him he’d rather be known as just the beer guy. And he is exactly that. With ‘I don’t know how many’ years in the craft beer dispensing business and nearly 3000 personal beer reviews, this guy knows his stuff. But enough about Al, let’s talk about beer. My first beer of the evening was a Surly 16-Grit. I’ve been waiting to try this beer for a long time. See my previous post here for more info on that. This was great! In my opinion, this was like a Furious on steroids. At first whiff I got loads of hops. It seemed like a similar hop profile as Furious. But upon further investigation, there was a lot more going on in the aroma. Definitely smelled like a double IPA. IPA’s smell, well, mostly hoppy, but not much in the way of maltiness. But with doubles (Extras, Imperials, etc) I get that rich deep caramel sweetness. And I was certainly getting that here. It tasted fantastic and was rich and hoppy, perfectly carbonated and a nice smooth mouthfeel. I could swirl, sniff and sip this all night, but at 10% abv I better not. On to the next.

Al has started something new here at the Blue Nile, the Beer Cruise. It seems like local establishments are finally catching on to what wine people have been doing forever… flights. However, the word flight in this case suggests elevation or escalation and a ranking of sorts. This seems a little silly since all of Al’s beers are good so he’s decided to call them cruises. Cruises consist of three 4oz pours and if I remember correctly there are four different cruises to choose from. A hoppy cruise, a malty (dark beer) cruise, a Surly Cruise – 4 Surly beers – and I can’t for the life of me remember the forth one. Although I think it has a Belgian or two. I decided to go with the dark beer cruise. Of the three beers, there were two that I hadn’t tried before so this seemed like the logical choice. This cruise consisted of Surly Bender, Tyranena’s Chipotle Smoked Imperial Porter and Lion Stout. I wanted to taste them one at a time so as not to confuse my palate. I would save the Bender for last since I’ve had that many times and start with the Lion Stout. I had watched a lot of that being poured since I arrived so my interest was piqued. Mmmm, smells great! Lots of dark/dried fruit, mostly raisin. It smelled great! And the taste was just as rewarding. Lots of raisin and also the roasty dark malt that stout is known for. Finishes with a nice thick mouthfeel.What a sweet treasure, I will certainly be looking for this one again soon, I recommend you do the same. In fact go see Al at the Nile and tell him the Lion sent you. I enjoyed this one so much that I decided to save it for last. I wanted it to be the one I remembered on the ride home. So next up was the Tyranena. As I said at the bar, I really couldn’t find the chipotle. I think I may have sensed its spiciness on my tongue, but I really couldn’t taste it at all. I did get the smoke though. Just enough to know it’s there and very pleasant. Wish I could have tasted the chipotle pepper though, I do like a little of that and I think it would have been nice with the smoky porter. I think I’ll look for ‘The Devil Made Me Do It’ next time. The Bender was business as usual a solid dark beer that just doesn’t quite fit into any style. And that’s the way Surly wants it. Fine with me. Although I must say, this was a nice change of pace as I have been drinking mostly the coffee version of Bender these last few months. I had just a taste of Duchesse de Bourgogne before cutting myself off and heading for home. It was a little after 9:00 and I thought I had plenty of time to get home (Eden Prairie) before my wife got home at 10:00. That thought soon came to screeching halt. Tonight was the night that 35W south would be shutting down three of four lanes. I could expand but that is neither beer nor there.

Well, that’s another episode of BEER THIS! Special thanks to Al at the Blue Nile for not only providing me with content for this post but for also keeping me company. I may have been sitting on that bar stool by myself that night, but I was certainly not alone. It’s always a pleasure to talk beer with the great Felonious Monk.

P.S. I made it home just in time!