Winterfest

We went to Winterfest on Friday, January 31st and met our friend John there. It was held at a new venue this year, the Union Depot in St. Paul. Winterfest is the coveted beer fest for the serious beer peeps and the first of three for the year put on by the Minnesota Craft Brewer's Guild. This was the third one we've been to and I preferred this venue but M liked it better when it was at the Minnesota History Center. The beer booths were a lot closer to each other and that was what I liked however it did get crowded in the area it was held. I don't partake much but I had some fun ingredients in my beer like coconut, raspberry, blueberry and blackberry. The food was pretty decent as well serving roast beef, cold roasted veggies and potatoes. I would have liked to have seen HammerHeart Brewing there but there's not enough room for all the good brewers. Of the three of us, each of us ran into someone that we went to school with. I guess everyone does like beer.

 

Jeremy and I--We haven't seen each other since we were 19

M and Dangerous Man Brewing's found Rob Miller

Photobombed!

 

 

 

 

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HH

M and I met our friend John at HammerHeart Brewing shortly after work on Friday, November 15th.  Our plan was just to go for one as M wanted to try Hail to the Dark Gourd, their smoked pumpkin ale, which he loved.

John, Me, Tanner and Photobomb John

After two beers for me, it was already close to 10 pm so we decided to get food.  The three of us went to Grumpy's in Roseville to eat.  Our conversation again was hours long and we didn't end up leaving until 12:30 am, which was really late for me considering I was only going out for one!  I haven't gone out on multiple weekends drinking in ages.  

Old Friends, Music and Beer

M and I went to Pickle Park in Fridley on Saturday, November 2nd to see my friend Heather's husband's band perform.  It's also the band of one of my oldest friends, Rich.  Once we were there, Chris met up with us as well.

This was the grand finals of a battle of the bands-type event where 11 bands played and competed for $35,000 in cash and prizes. They had played 5 rounds of shows over the summer to get to this point. Unfortunately, they did not win, but another band they are friends with did.

Heather's husband Jeremy on stage

Me and Heather

I wasn't sure who would be there but I was pleasantly surprised to see some friends of mine.  I've seen all of the guys below in the last two years but it is a rare event when we are all together so it was a must that M took a picture of us.  Heather and I met Matt and Rich on the same day when they were at the mall with each other the summer before 9th grade.  Once we started high school that year, we saw Rich our first day of school as he was one of the new kids in the district since he went to a private school before. As for Tim, we go back to 5th grade.     

Matt, Me, Tim, Rich

After the show, M, Chris and myself went to Dangerous Man Brewing for a couple.  Both Chris and I had never been there but of course M has multiple times.  He even had his Dangerous Man t-shirt on. (P.S. Michael gets mistaken for the Dangerous Man in the beer community a lot!)

MY Dangerous Man

THE Dangerous Man

The bar was packed and it was early.  We didn't have anywhere to sit at first but found seating after about 45 minutes.  I saw one of the news reporters from KARE 11 there drinking with his family/friends.

I had the pumpkin spice ale which was delicious.  So delicious I had two.  At one point in the night, one of the bartenders/workers got on top of the bar, got everyone's attention and said that they wanted to cheers everyone as it was one of those rare times when the mood, the people, the beer and everything is right and so we all raised our glasses and cheered and continued to sip away.  I was buzzed at this point so I thought that his intermission into our lives while in their establishment was perfect.

M and I dropped off Chris and we went to Applebee's where we had some water, some food and terrible service before going home and calling it a night.

It was a big weekend for me.  I hardly ever go out on weekends let alone both Friday AND Saturday.  I felt young again!

Nine

Friday, November 1st marked the nine year anniversary of M and I's relationship.  He surprised me at work by coming in-person to bring me flowers, a card and donuts for my coworkers and to take me out to lunch.  

M capturing my reaction reading his card at my desk

Beautiful colors and flowers that M picked for me.  He know me very well.

That evening, M and I went to Famous Dave's for dinner.  We'd be been craving some sort of BBQ for weeks so we decided to go there.  It hit the spot.

Afterwards, we zoomed up to Lino Lakes to go to HammerHeart Brewing.  M's been there a couple of times before but I hadn't.  My friend Tanner works there so I was happy to see him and catch up.  We were treated very nicely including a tour of the brewing area. I got to eat barley right out of the bag...kind of tastes like grape nuts. Tanner took it upon himself to choose my beer.  It was a bourbon barrel aged something or other which is not really my style however it was delicious but very filling. He even gave us a try of some meat that he had.  Goose, like in Canadian Goose.  It was a meat stick and it was good.  And then I felt bad/sad knowing I was eating those honking birds.

Tanner and Me

We got home around the 11 pm hour and hung out for a little while watching TV.  M, I love you and appreciate being with you each day.  Thank you for enhancing all most of my days. :)  Looking forward to all our future days together.

Road Trip- Day Five

We woke up on a warm, humid and sunny Saturday morning on August 17th.  Our first activity of the day was going to Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park.  The day was getting hot so we got there in late morning. 

We saw an exhibit by Zhang Huan, that had sculptures and photographs and paintings that were created with ash on linen.  Check out some of his ash on linen paintings.  Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any photos.

We started in the greenhouse-type rooms with all the arid climate cacti and succulents.  

Once outside again, we saw there was a lot of ground to cover so we thought we'd pay $3 each to take the tram.  Big mistake.  It ended up taking longer and we didn't get as many good views of some the sculptures than we would have if we were on foot, which we ended up walking back to some of them anyways. 

We went into downtown Grand Rapids after the garden to Founders Brewing Company.  Founders is M's favorite brewery.  The building had a lot of construction going on when we got there as they are expanding at a crazy rate and it was very busy when we showed up around 2 pm.    

We found a great spot at a table on the patio but we were called up to do the tour, which we thought started at 3 pm.  This is a kind of a long back story but it shows you another case of what a small world it is.  

Remember our friends Chris and Tanya?  If you read my blog, you know them.  Well, Tanya's mom Donna is engaged to Mike.  Mike's son Nate works at Founders.  We've never met Mike or Nate but Nate used to be a brewer at a brewery in Wisconsin.  When we told Chris and Tanya months ago that we had this trip planned, they gave us Nate's email address to contact him and see if we could hook up with him while we were there as well as ask him if he wanted us to bring him any MN beer since M ended up getting a bottle of Doom from Nate/his dad when he was out there visiting.  M and him emailed back and forth a bit and M brought him some Surly on this visit and to have a chance to meet him.  

We went on the tour, which was pretty standard as far as brewery tours go and then at the end of the tour, our tour guide Gabe grabbed Nate, who was working, and brought him to us to meet.  He came out to the car with us to get his Surly beer and we chatted for awhile.  He's worked there since November 2012 but he worked at Thirsty Pagan in Superior, WI before that.  I asked him if he knew my cousin and her husband, Laura and Chris as I knew they knew people from that brewery. He did and he said that he donated a keg to my aunt's benefit in March 2012. (Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and M is cleaning out the "junk drawer" in the kitchen and finds a post-it note that says "Thirsty Pagan- Nate" and a phone number on it.  M had talked to him on the phone two years ago about setting up a tour.)  So, Laura and Chris, your friend Nate is going to be my friend Tanya's step brother. Small world, huh? 

After the tour, we found another spot in the building to order some beer and food.  I had a pounding headache so I only drank water except for a couple of sips of a beer I hadn't tried before.  I ordered a sandwich and M ordered a pizza and both were incredibly delicious.  

We stayed here for hours, much later than we thought we would and what we should have according to our time schedule and we we had to be for the rest of the day but we were having a good time.  The taproom manager sat down and talked to us at our table for a half hour, knowing our "relationship" to Nate.  He left the table and came back with a bottle wrapped up in paper for M.  It was a gift of a bottle of KBS.  Very nice gift if you know your beer.

We left Grand Rapids and headed south 50 miles to Kalamazoo, MI.  Once we got to Kalamazoo, you could tell we were rolling through the hood and we didn't see a single white person for a very long time, until we got into the downtown area.  Nothing to be concerned with and I'm writing it here so I can remember going through the not-so-great-neighborhood. 

Our next brewery was destination, Bell's Brewery and the Eccentric Cafe.  One of the first signs I saw on the wall was for Fitger's.  M got a flight while I sipped a little from them.  I saw someone with an awesome salad so even though I had just eaten several hours ago, I had to get that salad.  We had a good time on the inside but didn't even realize there was a whole patio/outdoor area until we were leaving otherwise we would have hung out there instead.  

We walked to a place that our server from Smokey Bones on Friday night told us about.  It's called Kalamazoo Beer Exchange and it has a similar concept to the stock exchange.  They have 15 minute trading periods where there is a price set for a beer.  If that beer gets ordered a lot during the 15 minutes, the price is going to go up.  If it doesn't get ordered as much, the price will go down.  Supply and demand, baby.  M saw a beer that was priced pretty low and decided to wait it out after the 15 minute trading period.  After the time was up, the price went up 50 cents so he missed out.  He still bought the beer though.  

It was already dark by the time we left Kalamazoo and we still had some driving ahead of us and one more brewery on our beer tour.  We drove to a little town called Marshall, MI, 35 miles away which has around 7,000 people to go to Dark Horse Brewing. It was already 10:30 pm by the time we got there but they had their Chicken Wing Thing festival going on so it was plenty busy.  Instead of paying $10 to go on the lot and listen to bands, we went into their little shack bar and sat at the bar and had a quick beer sitting underneath all the steins they have hanging from the ceiling. 

We drove another 30 miles east to Jackson, MI, where our hotel was.  Problem was, we showed up too late and they gave our hotel away to one of their high-end members.  Instead, they put us up in a comparable hotel just a block away and paid for it.  I'll take a free hotel room for the slightest bit of inconvenience. We drove down the street, checked in and settled into bed after midnight with another big day ahead of us.