1st Annual Minneapolis Beer Fest

My wife is pretty cool. I’ve mentioned this before but thought I might as well score some points and say it again, especially because it’s legitimately warranted. She sent me a link to a Crowd Cut coupon for the first annual Minneapolis Beer Fest saying I should check it out. Knowing she’s pregnant and can’t drink, I responded with “yeah that’s cool but the only problem is you can’t really enjoy access to hundreds of beers to sample unless you plan to cab it and that can be expensive” thinking she meant I should go with one of my friends. Apparently she meant that she would come with and be my DD for said event. Since we were getting 1/2 off with the coupon, she didn’t see much issue with paying the $15 entry fee. Now that was cool. AND… I got to drink for two (instead of her). Double the selection for the same amount of time spent in line at each booth. Guys – I’d seriously consider getting your significant others pregnant if possible. We’re about 5 months in and it’s been all fun and no work so far. Of course, I can blindly expect this trend to continue indefinitely, right?

The only problem was that my wife’s awesomeness may have overshadowed the actual event. Minneapolis Beer Fest was an event put on by distributor JJ Taylor, so none of the people pouring beers were from the actual breweries. They were all just volunteers who really couldn’t answer any questions about the beer they were serving. Bummer. Also, it was a tit bit nippy that evening to be standing outside in a big parking lot drinking over-chilled beer. There was a very good selection of that over-chilled beer, though. I recall tasting brews from Anchor, Brooklyn, Capital, Central Waters, Flat Earth, Goose Island, O’Dell’s, Stevens Point, Rogue, Samuel Smith, Summit, Widmer and probably a few others. Overall, my favorite beer was Rogue’s Hazelnut Brown ale. Runner up was Rogue’s Chocolate Stout. Honestly, yes Rogue stole the show for me. I liked both of their beers I tried so much I actually mixed them together near the end to create a delicious hazelnut chocolate ale. Mmmm. Got me further inspired to brew my impending chocolate cherry stout for the holidays.

Budweiser was there in full force, yet their booth was as light on attendance as the product was on flavor hahahaha! Oh I’m so funny, aren’t I?