The Brewery Adventure
Do you love breweries and tap rooms? Well, we do. We love the beer of course, but this podcast is more about the spaces themselves. What makes a great brewery experience? We explore breweries around Minnesota and beyond to discover our favorites. Join us for The Brewery Adventure!
The Brewery Adventure
Multiball & Maibocks
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We’re going full tilt with pinball and pints! Recorded at Wandering Leaf, we dive into their packed third birthday party, our outdoor arcade adventure at Bad Weather Brewing, and Town Hall Brewing's Blessing of the Maibock. We also highlight the Minnesota breweries who recently won awards at the World Beer Cup and a few upcoming events you'll want to get on your beer calendar!
EPISODE BEERS (from Wandering Leaf Brewing):
Courtney: La Hoja, Mexican Lager
Dan: A Bit Weird, Innit?, English Dark Mild
LINKS:
Visit our website at https://thebreweryadventure.com or contact us by sending an email to courtney@thebreweryadventure.com.
Be sure to subscribe to our Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/thebreweryadventure!
Welcome to the Brewery Adventure. I'm Courtney.
SPEAKER_03And I'm Dan. We're here to dive into the world of your local brewery.
SPEAKER_02It's not just about the beer, it's about the vibe, the people, and the stories behind every tap room.
SPEAKER_03From snall from small neighborhood spots to big bustling brew houses. We'll bring you along for the ride. So grab a pint and join us on the brewery adventure. Cheers.
SPEAKER_02Oh wait, bonk. Okay, we're good. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_03Beer-flavored beer, my favorite.
SPEAKER_02I've needed this all day long.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Dan, we're at Wandering Leaf again.
SPEAKER_03We are.
SPEAKER_02Our home away from home.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, the unofficial but official uh home of the brewery adventure podcast.
SPEAKER_02It's true. Yeah. We're gonna get a little plaque on the wall.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, hopefully not right on the murals. Okay, yeah, let's not ruin the mural. We don't want to ruin it. They've got a lot of beautiful murals here.
SPEAKER_02They really do, and a lot of beautiful plants.
SPEAKER_03Lots of plants.
SPEAKER_02It's a tropical paradise in here right now.
SPEAKER_03It is, both uh visually and temperature-wise. I don't know what somebody is it Florida Man night here in the tap room? Because it's all it's all full humid. There's just a cue the crying baby. Oh god.
SPEAKER_02Actually, Dan, I think we did hit like the baby event night.
SPEAKER_03It's supposed to be ending at 6 30.
SPEAKER_02Oh.
SPEAKER_03That's why I was like, oh yeah, that'll be perfect.
SPEAKER_02There's mahjong happening. There's a lot of babies happening in here.
SPEAKER_03I know. I figured the biggest noise we'll have to do with mahjong is the clickety clack of the little tiles.
SPEAKER_02Well, you're gonna deal with me being distracted because they were like teaching people how to play at the table that's right behind me. Oh. And so I've been like leaning, like, I'd I'd like to know. I've only ever played mahjong on like a computer where you don't actually have to know what you're doing.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's like the matching one.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03That's the more fun one. My wife has a mahjong tile game. She used to play with a group of other people. Yeah. And they were very serious about it. It was funny.
SPEAKER_02It looks fun.
SPEAKER_03They would overtake my living room one night a month.
SPEAKER_02So I what I hear you saying is that I could just ask Karen to teach me how to play.
SPEAKER_03She probably could. And she has a big fancy official thing like the people behind you. I mean, they're beautiful tiles. Yeah. But I don't know. It kind of like looks like they're doing scrabble with symbols. I don't know how to play.
SPEAKER_02We can put that on our to-do list. Yes. Right. Learn mahjong.
SPEAKER_03Then we'll create a spin-off, just like Frasier, except it'll be the Mahjong adventure. Oh, baby, I hear the tiles are clinking. Toss salad and scramble eggs.
SPEAKER_02It would totally work.
SPEAKER_03I'm listening. Your move. Click, click, click.
SPEAKER_02Does anyone want to guess what beer Dan is drinking at Wandering Leaf?
SPEAKER_03Well, I'll give you a hint. I helped make it. I thought about that the other day, and I'm like, I'm gonna be really sad when I come in here and this is gone.
SPEAKER_02Well, you're gonna have to make another one.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I hope so.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I I I think they'll let you.
SPEAKER_03I hope well, yeah, let's let's a man can wish. I haven't told anybody this, but I did put one of my seven whore cruxes in this beer. So when it's gone, I'll be one step closer to the grave. What are you drinking?
SPEAKER_02I that looks like a nice clear. Oh, do you want to guess?
SPEAKER_03I'm gonna can I smell it? And then I'll make an educated. Yes.
SPEAKER_02Stan the beer man in action.
SPEAKER_03Is that the pills? Check pills? Mexican lager? Yes. Okay. Shoot. I should have.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I I did not go out and do anything for Cinco de Mayo yesterday, so I'm having him a Mexican lager today.
SPEAKER_03I made quite possibly the best batch of guacamole I've ever done.
SPEAKER_02Seriously?
SPEAKER_03And I tell you, I think I'm connected with all the produce at Aldi because I grabbed seven avocados exactly four days before. So it was like on May 1st. You're pushing it. And they ripened perfectly. They were like bright green.
SPEAKER_02Oh.
SPEAKER_03The texture. There was no brown. It was perfect.
SPEAKER_02Isn't it happy? Like as soon as you cut into it and you just see how nice it is, you're like, oh, this is this was the time.
SPEAKER_03And my favorite thing is like whacking the seed with the knife.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I get a lot of enjoyment from that. Yeah, so guacamole.
SPEAKER_02What did you put in your guacamole that made it so good?
SPEAKER_03I do a well so obviously the avocados. Uh, some very finely minced red onion, onion powder, garlic powder, adobo seasoning, ancho chili powder, and then I put a bunch of finely chopped cilantro. I squeeze at least one and a half to three lines. It kind of depends on. So I kind of taste as I go, and then salt at the end, and then I test it with a chip. And it turned out really well. Yeah, I like this. Yeah, it was good. It's I love making guacamole. I think it's one of the things that like I think I paid 59 cents an avocado. And I think about how expensive guacamole, like store-bought guacamole.
SPEAKER_0259 cents for the avocado?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, at Aldi. Aldi has ridiculous produce prices. That's where, like, and you can find, I think they were might have been on sale for Cinco de Mayo, but and then I was at Target. They were like 119 in avocado. I'm like, in this economy, I think not. When gas is on the rise, I'm gonna start putting guacamole in my car. Olay! And happy Cinco de Mayo to you listeners. Recording this on May 6th, Revenge of the Sixth. Revenge of the Sith. And it was happy May the 4th be with you, Dave.
SPEAKER_02It's been a big week.
SPEAKER_03Remember that uh episode of Arrested Development when Job was mad that Cinco de Mayo, he was buying stuff for an event and it was all gone because of Cinco de Mayo. So he did Cinco Day Quattro to mess with people. Then people started buying stuff for that too, and he got really mad. That's uh that that was a reference for you. I like it. Who is your favorite arrested development character? Have we talked about this before?
SPEAKER_02No, we haven't. It's it's maybe. Yeah? Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Maybe and I think was it Michael? They were singing karaoke, they were singing afternoon delight, and then they got midway through the song and they realized it was about sex.
SPEAKER_00They're like, oh, stop, stop, stop. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Well, this is not a this is not a mahjong podcast or an arrested development podcast. This is a beer podcast.
SPEAKER_02Strangely enough.
SPEAKER_03We've been we've been having a lot of beer fun out in out on the town.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03We've been busy.
SPEAKER_02We've got a lot of events that we've been to.
SPEAKER_03Going going all over the place. This is a fun time of year. Things are picking up. February usually is pretty slow. March, you know, you've got October or not Oktoberfest. They brew Oktoberfest in March if they're if they're doing their the the old-fashioned way. But you've got St. Patrick's Day, and then April happens, and there's like, seems like now there's a lot of stuff happening.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_03But the first thing we did in April.
SPEAKER_02What was the first thing we did?
SPEAKER_03Well, I mean, the first thing we're gonna talk about on Overstream. Oh my god!
SPEAKER_02I thought you were surprising me with something I didn't have.
SPEAKER_03At the end of April, we came to Wandering Leaf!
SPEAKER_02There it goes. I warned you when we started today that I'm really I I brought my A game.
SPEAKER_03Wandering Leaf Third anniversary. What's the gift for the third anniversary? Oh one of them is tin, one of them is paper, one of them is wood, bronze, brass, helper monkey, chameleon. Oh nope, no, these are my favorite Pokemon cards. There's a whole list.
SPEAKER_02There is a whole list. Did they call theirs an anniversary or a birthday though?
SPEAKER_03Well, it was a birthday. The anniversary of their brewery opening.
SPEAKER_02I mean, some people go anniversaries, some people like they they called it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, theirs was definitely more of a birthday party. Well, whether it was spankings or some raw material exhumed from the earth, happy birthday, wandering leaf.
SPEAKER_02Happy birthday, wandering leaf.
SPEAKER_03That was a fun day. There's a lot going on.
SPEAKER_02I I was looking up. Um your third anniversary is supposed to be leather or crystalslash glass.
SPEAKER_03Oh, interesting. Okay.
SPEAKER_02I did not bring them either, any of those things.
SPEAKER_03We'll have to get Robbie some leather chaps and just be a belated birthday present. Here you go. Put these on, cowboy. Can you imagine Robbie in the old west?
SPEAKER_01Oh my god.
SPEAKER_03Do you think he'd make it? He's very uh fair skinned. I think he'd make it. Well, he might, but he'd he'd be really sunburned.
SPEAKER_02Maybe maybe his skin would adapt.
SPEAKER_03I don't know. I mean, he's on the scale of lightness. He's lighter than you.
SPEAKER_02That's really hard.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. He's if he had red hair, he'd definitely be a daywalker.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_03I mean, I think the whitest person I know is my wife. She's as white as can be. And he's bordering up along that era. When she slathers on sunpan lotion, it looks like kabuki theater. It's so thick, it's got zinc in it. Why did you put toothpaste all over your face? Are you worried about cavities?
SPEAKER_02You have to. You just have to.
SPEAKER_03I know, I know. That's what people keep telling me. Give it 10 years, my face is gonna be like a catcher's myth. Uh so we yeah, wandering leaf, third birthday.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they have.
SPEAKER_03They're out of the terrible twos, and now they had part of shindig. And I think Robbie and Matt, they both were wearing pull-ups, so that's that was fun.
SPEAKER_01Like, what?
SPEAKER_03I don't know. So I'm gonna be making a lot a lot of toddler jokes in this segment. No.
SPEAKER_02There are a lot of toddlers here right now. Oh, yeah, there are.
SPEAKER_03I can't wait till they go to bed. I'm not a not a kid person. That was a fun day. It was very crowded.
SPEAKER_02Again, I don't know what I don't know what goes through my head when I start thinking about the places I'm gonna be going to, but I was not expecting it to be that crowded. But it was. There were tons of people outside. They had live music going outside, tons of people inside.
SPEAKER_03I was worried, I think it was if it would have been like maybe five degrees warmer and no threat of rain, I think more people would have been outside.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03But it was a little gray, a little chilly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03We were we were situated right in the I call it the plant alley, as you kind of like the main way you come in, and I kept I got stepped on several dogs, sniffed my butt, and uh yeah, I was just like front and center. It was like Jack Nicholson at a Lakers game, just right there, next to Diane Cannon, watching it all happen. It was a fun day, lots of great beers. They had two of my favorite food trucks.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it was a big choice for you.
SPEAKER_03La Choza and Amazing Momo. They're both great. I got, you know, we had a little bit of each. That was fun. And then lots of nice 3.9%. A bit weird, isn't it? Yeah. Lots of good beers.
SPEAKER_02And easy drinking.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And then it was kind of funny. Marcus and Andrea showed up. I was like, maybe I'll text them. No, I think they'll just be here. And I met a woman who uh her name is Miranda. She works for the Minnesota Aurora, and she does she's in charge of their like partnerships and things like that. Well, that's it. I was talking to her because they're trying to, the Aurora is trying to do a kind of a beer pass thing or a beer thing with breweries, so that's kind of fun.
SPEAKER_02Do you get to go like consult with them about I don't know.
SPEAKER_03I'll give her some suggestions. You're like, hey, let's get I bet Lupilin would want to do it. I know Erin is a big soccer fan.
SPEAKER_02That's really cool.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, that was fun. I also realized at first when I saw her, I was like, that person looks very familiar. Where do I know that person? Well, she was in the a bit weird in it promo video that they shot at Wandering Leaf at the very end. She was sitting at the bar. I'm like, that's why your face is familiar. Because I'm old and forgetful. Oh so, but yeah, super nice. I guess they know Andrea and Marcus because they used to go to Wabashaw. I think they still do go to Wabashaw, but they've kind of migrated here as adopting Wandering Leaf as their as their go-to. They're mug p mug club members at Wabashaw, but Wabashaw, they're uh I don't know, they just like want to mix it up. Yeah so Marcus and Andrea come here now, which is fun. It's good to go to, you know, it's good to culminate all the breweries. Yeah. You know, go to go to a bunch of different ones, but they're definitely St. Paul people. What was your favorite beer that you had at the anniversary?
SPEAKER_02I don't even remember what I was drinking at the anniversary. I think I just kept ordering different like low ABV beers.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I I think I did a bit weird, isn't it? I think I had a Pilsar Good, I think I had a Hellas, I think I had a La Hoja.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03They've got a really nice beer list right now. I mean they got a nice beer list all the time, but their Mexican lager is good.
SPEAKER_02That's what I'm drinking tonight.
SPEAKER_03What do you you know? I should ask them how many kegs are left of the English Dark Mild. I mean, it's been well over a m over a month since it's been out. Probably six weeks. Yeah, it's been six weeks, I think, because it went on tap the end of March.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So, you know, coming and enjoy it while it lasts. It will eventually be. It's really good. Yeah, it is very tasty.
SPEAKER_02The thing I liked about their birthday party, there were again, it happens every time you walk in the door here. There is such a strong sense of community when you come in here. And that was just the anniversary party was just that, like times a thousand. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03I think one of my highlights was actually when we went in the back and started playing golf, and Robbie got two holes holes in one rigged back to back. And I saw this ginormous confetti cake, and I was like, oh, I wonder if that's for sharing. And then after we all like broke down the tents outside, I saw people eating, and I'm like, oh, may I have a piece of cake? And they're like, yeah, go for it. We've got a lot. We're and I I cut an aggressively large.
SPEAKER_02As you should.
SPEAKER_03Oh my gosh. I think there's there's few things in the world that I lose sleep over because I love them. One of them is canceled staff meetings at work. Another one is really good beer. Another one is, you know, when you go to somebody's house and they've got really fancy cheese as a snack. And then there's birthday cake. Birthday cake is really awesome. I love birthday cake. I do not love pie. I'm a cake person. You're a cake person. I'm team cake. And I love red velvet cake. I love cheesecake. I'm coming around on carrot cake, but when it comes to funfetti cake, I am as giddy as a schoolboy on June 6th because I love the colors. And I am very much a five-year-old when it comes to food because I'm very visual about it. That's a party cake. It was multi-layered. Great buttercream frosting. There were like four layers of cake. I mean, this thing was huge. It was giant is ginormous. And it had fun little wandering leaf green frosting on the top. So I was drawn in immediately.
SPEAKER_02You're making me really hungry for cake.
SPEAKER_03The cake could have had asbestos in it. I would not have noticed it because I'm such a sucker for colorful frosting. And every bite I had of that was just a parade down Main Street of Flavortown. It was just glorious. I was so happy. And then I'm like, yes, this is great. Goes very well with hams, surprisingly enough. Who knew? I mean, next time I make a funfetti cake at home, I'll have some hams.
SPEAKER_02Cake and hams. That sounds like a good dinner to me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that was a it was a really fun time, and then we stayed late to kind of close the doors.
SPEAKER_02We did we did have an incident.
SPEAKER_03There was yes, there was.
SPEAKER_02That was uh a a very uh a very scary and serious incident that happened. The table that was.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, literally like right next across the walkway.
SPEAKER_02Across the the walkway from us. There was a woman who I think she was just walking by and she fell, tripped, like passed out. I I don't think it was like an alcohol-related, she was so drunk she just went. It was like a medical, a medical event that happened. But she she fell and she hit her head on the table, and she just she was she was out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02The response to that happening, the people who immediately like rushed over to her side, they they didn't know this woman. They were just the people who were in the area, the staff then that came, the number of people that immediately whipped out their phones and were calling 911. It it still gives me chills. Like the the response to what happened was absolutely incredible.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that was really cool. I love it how like just people just like jump in and help. And of course, anytime there's a medical situation, I just freeze.
SPEAKER_02And I just like, oh my god.
SPEAKER_03I'm not good in a crisis situation. But every yeah, enough people jumped in and everything, and then by the time the EMTs arrived, she was like awake and cognizant of the world around her, and they got her up on the thing and hope she's all right.
SPEAKER_02But and Matt was sitting with us, one of the owners at the time, and I think I think his reaction was was very similar to mine. He he was a little overcome by it. He was a little he was very shaken by it. But I think his his comment was in the world that we live in today, when stuff like that happens, I think I expect everybody to just walk on by.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So watching the caring and all of the people that rushed in to help was really it it felt pretty good.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02The world is not as bad as it seems. Right. At least not at Wandering Leaf.
SPEAKER_03And I think it I think that's something about craft breweries in general that have a nice following. I mean, they are community spots, and I think Wandering Leaf does it very well, but there's you know, there's every place has their version of that. And I think if we could be in any brewery, if there was something like that that happened, I think people would just like spring to action. And I think that's I think yeah, you can you forget that there are good people. Even even people that, you know, maybe some of the people that jumped in, like, we wouldn't have necessarily a ton of political stuff in common with, but like in those moments, I think that like that can supersede your differences, and I think as a country we need to remember that because I don't even think of it as a political thing. I think just like people don't just think they just callousness and don't don't notice. Not my problem. Yeah, yeah. Those gosh darn gen ziers. They're just um yeah, I don't know. I think yeah, it was it was nice to see people spring to action, but I think that's very very much about you know this this place. That's the one thing about St. Paul. There's a lot of really nice people in St. Paul.
SPEAKER_02They're amazing people, you know, like people St.
SPEAKER_03Paul. We're not the coolest city. We go to bed a little earlier than our counterparts across the river, but we are very, very good people and always willing to help.
SPEAKER_02Yes, that that moment is gonna just stick with me for a while.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that was that was nice. And I again I I think she's probably okay. She looked like everything was gonna be all right. I mean, usually in those situations they just take you for observation and stuff like that. But yeah, it was yeah, that was a little freaky. And then it just calms down. I think for for every of the staff at Wandering Leaf did a really nice job of just like okay, here, move away, give this person space, let's make sure she's okay, and then kind of once everything was back to normal, they just didn't miss a beat and just jumped right back into filling up beers and giving air high fives and having a good time. It was very good.
SPEAKER_02And then after that, last last weekend, oh my gosh, it was just last Saturday.
SPEAKER_03I know, been a whirlwind.
SPEAKER_02We did a double event last week on Friday and then on Saturday. Well, you kind of doubled up on Saturday. I think you went back. So on Friday, we went to bad weather in also in St. Paul. That's right.
SPEAKER_03I promise the next time we hang out, we'll go to the Western Burbs.
SPEAKER_02No, I'm telling you, I I love St. Paul. I've I've lived in various places in St. Paul. I that's true.
SPEAKER_03I forget that.
SPEAKER_02I like I think this it's a weird I claim the Twin Cities as my home. It's not Minneapolis specifically, it's not St. Paul specifically, it's not one of the suburbs. It's just like the whole metro is mine.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's all mine, Dan.
SPEAKER_03Okay, that's good. Yeah, I can only claim St. Paul. I've never lived in I've lived in West St. Paul and St. Paul. Never lived anywhere else.
SPEAKER_02Again, I feel like people who were born and raised here, especially if they were born and raised out in a suburb, feel like they've got their little pocket, and it takes a lot for them to leave that pocket.
SPEAKER_03I just don't think I'm cool enough to live in Minneapolis. Everybody who lives in Minneapolis, they have fashion, they know good music, a lot of them play guitars. That's just not me.
SPEAKER_02Dan, I've lived in Minneapolis and I have none of those things.
SPEAKER_03You have good taste in music.
SPEAKER_02Some some maybe sometimes.
SPEAKER_03Courtney, half of my CD collection until I was like in college was TV theme song compilation. Oh, really?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. We would have been friends back in the day. I think we would.
SPEAKER_03You wanna come over and listen to Three's company theme song?
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes, I do.
SPEAKER_03We've been waiting for you. Um, yes. Yeah, it was Friday night. I was very excited about last weekend. I was looking forward to the arcade, the outdoor bad weather arcade. That's one of my favorite beer events every single year. I can't remember what year they started it. Feels like it's been going at least seven or eight years, maybe more. They section off their parking lot. They get a ton of arcade games, pinball games, skee ball. They had those like I felt like it was an outdoor Chuck E. Cheese.
SPEAKER_02It was like an outdoor Chuck E. Cheese, and there were a bunch of food trucks there. There's the beer inside at bad weather. They had all their garage doors open. Yep. So many games outside. Again, I don't know what was in my head, but when I got there, I was amazed at how many different games they had out there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And all I wanted to know is where did these come from?
SPEAKER_03There must be there must be a company that has them all.
SPEAKER_02That's just a lot of games to rent out.
SPEAKER_03Well, and then, like we were mentioning at the end of the night, they just put the tents flaps down and just like hope nobody's gonna steal them.
SPEAKER_02I wasn't plotting anything.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. You were like, what if we did an Ocean's 11 type takeover of these pinball games? I'm like, I don't know. Let's let's not do that. I was really psyched that somebody from Bad Weather reached out and mailed me bracelets.
SPEAKER_02That was really stupid.
SPEAKER_03That was really fun. That was super generous of them. So we got to play free. And then I left mine on all weekend long so I could go back. Because I really like those games. And it's fun because I never remember to bring change. They have pinball games here at Wandering Leaf. I never play them because I never have changed.
SPEAKER_02I never have changed, but also like the the price was on a lot of those games, like what you would normally pay for them if you were. Like that's that's a lot. That's insane. I don't know what I don't know what the pinball costs here, but number one, don't carry change on me. Number two, if you tell me to put two dollars into a pinball game, I just want to walk away. Yeah, fifty cents maybe if it's a really good one.
SPEAKER_03Right, yeah. But yeah, like pinball. You know, I know it's like pinball. A gumball, a really nice back scratch. Everything should just be 50 cents and just call it a day. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, but yeah, that's nice. And you know, you go there, and even if you pay, I don't even know what it was $10 for a report.
SPEAKER_02Was it $10? It was $10. Totally worth it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Oh yeah. After five rounds of pinball, you're it's like they're paying you to have fun. And just you just go around and play games. I was I love Galaga. It's such a good game.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so Friday night, Galaga, there was a high score that was like $45,000.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_02And you came so close at like $42 and I was 3,000 away. And then on Saturday when you said you were going back, I was really excited. I'm like, he's totally gonna beat that record. And then you sent me a picture of what the new current high score was.
SPEAKER_03I was like, oh, I was like, Jesus Christ. They had Bobby Fisher of Atari game showed up and just totally and I tried. It was just like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Did you beat your 42,000? No, I didn't even come close.
SPEAKER_03I think the highest I got was like 28. I was just like, yeah, I gotta go home. I guess too much.
SPEAKER_02Defeated.
SPEAKER_03I think it was the cumulative effect of the blessing of the Mybach. But yeah, let's we got ahead of ourselves. Let's rewind. Because we we we rendezvoused at Northbound Smokehouse and Brewpub. Yes. To cheers Andy the City Elf and congratulate him on his not one, but two World Beer Cup medals.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_03He came one beer. I don't even know if they entered more beers in that category, but he could have like swept it. He got gold and silver at W at World Beer Cup in that category. His Icebach won the gold and his Doppelbach won the silver.
SPEAKER_02That's pretty amazing.
SPEAKER_03It's very amazing when you consider that World Beer Cup isn't just breweries from America, it's breweries from all over the world. So he's going up against like the breweries that brew Salvatore and like all those Doppelbachs that have been around for hundreds, celebrator. Like it just boggles my mind how he is so good at those beers.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And those aren't the only beers he's good at. Like he's he just really understands lagers. On Friday at 11 a.m. They tapped Icebach and Doppelbach and had a little bit left of each one. And he said that there were people in line when they opened. Oh, I didn't know. Like to get it. There should be people in line for that. So that was that was fun. I always love heading right over there after work, after a school day.
SPEAKER_02So well, and we should talk about World Beer Cup a little more. There were some other Minnesota breweries that were involved. So that was their ceremony was April 22nd in Philadelphia. This I I think was their like 30th anniversary of doing these awards. Okay. Does that sound about right? Yeah. I think it started in 1996. Am I mathing things right? Yeah. It's not my strong suit, Dan.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yep, that's perfect.
SPEAKER_02Oh, sweet. So Andy won, Northbound won for their icebach and their doppelbach. Um Forgotten Star also got a gold for their Dark Skies Baltic Porter in the strong beer category. Canal Park Brewing got a silver medal for their Night Trekker Baltic Porter. Um then Little Thistle in Rochester got a bronze medal for their double elbow Tonks Tuesday pills.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's fun.
SPEAKER_02That's a that's a I think that's a nice Minnesota representation.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, those are well deserved. And I mean if you think about Baltic border, Pilsner, Doppelbach, Icebach, those are hard categories to win. I would say conventional wisdom might lead you to assume that the categories that American breweries would win would be more like the IPAs and different things like that. You're talking classic beer styles, and when you're winning those categories, beating out other European breweries, that's saying something about your skill. Yeah. And I will, I I love every beer I've ever had from the double elbow series from Little Thistle, has been incredible. It's a very unique kind of offshoot. So when Steve Finney hired Nico Tonks, who used to be the head brewer at Fair State, to be the head brewer at Little Thistle, Nico had this idea of doing a series of beers that were modeled after classic European styles. But instead of using malt from Europe, he uses malt from the United States. So he does a lot of like shopping around. When I was there to do a podcast last August, I saw a bunch of bags of Troubadour malt, and that's a malt house out in Colorado. And so he's really very clued in on how and where to get quality ingredients stateside, which is something that I'd really love to see more breweries start doing. Because, yes, if you buy from RARBSG, you can get whatever you want, and you probably get a discount on the price because it's they're so large. Yeah. But there are some really nice mom and pop malt farms, maltsters in the United States that are making incredible products. Two-tracks malting in North Dakota is one of them. They supplied the malt for the FarmAid beer that Broken Clock Brewing Cooperative made for Farmade's 40th anniversary. And that beer turned out incredibly well. The Gambit Brewing just brewed a beer with their uh, I think it's called Maltese malt. It's a darker malt from two tracks that just won a malt award. So, you know, that's uh just right kind of next door neighbor of Minnesota. They're doing some incredible things. I'm going out there this summer. I'm doing a road trip. I'm gonna do a podcast. So I'm very excited about that. So I've I always love, I mean, just like why I go to why I enjoy going to smaller breweries as opposed to just going to the bigger ones. I'm gonna go to the bigger ones too, but there's some breweries that have a they feel a corporate. And I'll go there every now and again. But I love to support these small places that are like less than 2,000 barrels that are really doing things well, and they're kind of along the same mindset as a lot of people when they say shop small. Yeah. That includes ingredients and stuff. Pass it on. The double elbow beers, if you ever see those in the liquor store, they've always got at least one or two tap lines at Grumpy's. I know they're always on tap at Meteor. Basically, if you have a reputable beer bar that knows what they're doing, they'll probably have a double elbow tap. Um, and if you're listening and you're a reputable beer bar and you don't have double elbow on tap, talk to Nico at Little Thistle and they'll make that happen.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So that was very well.
SPEAKER_02No. I think I've met that guy a couple times with you at beer events and just seems like the nicest guy.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah. Yeah. He's great. I love him. He and his wife are awesome. Yeah. And then, you know, Nico's really cool. We should go down there. It's not a bad drive. It's like an hour and 15.
SPEAKER_02So I'm ready, Dan. Let's go.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So that yeah, and then Canal Park was kind of surprising. There was a while where their beer just kind of blended into the crowd, so to speak. You know, when you're going up to Duluth, I remember when they first opened, I really liked their nuthatch brown ale. And there was one other one. Like I'm talking back at like 2012, 2013, 2014, in that era. Because Duluth was different then. You didn't have Urza Minor, you didn't have, I mean, you had Fitgers, Canal Park, you had Superior Brewing, but there wasn't like there was no Earthrider. Castle Danger was up in two harbors, but there wasn't as much other stuff. Yeah. And now I think I I often overlook Canal Park because I don't think I'm the only one that thinks this, but their quality took a little bit of a dip. And it wasn't just, it just didn't stand out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So they won several awards at the Minnesota Brewers Cup Awards, and now they won a World Beer Cup Award, so maybe I need to. Yeah, maybe maybe I need to circle back. I'll always go revisit a place.
SPEAKER_02I don't think I've had any of their beers. I don't we didn't go there when we were up at All Pines.
SPEAKER_03Well, no, when you you can't go there during All Pines. It's so it's a zoo. You think the Mahjong folks are crazy. Canal Park, because it's right on the walk. Oh did I ever tell you the story of this? Uh we called them the Duluth Hippies.
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_03I've told you about the Duluth Hippies. So there were like a number of years in a row where I used to go up to All Pints with uh my friends Marty and Randy. And it was like a guy's weekend trip. So we'd go up there and do beer stuff. I think I was writing about beer, but we had been going since the second year it happened. So I think it started in 2010 or 2011. So I think 2011 or 2012 was the first year I started going up there. And one of the years it started out where it was not just Minnesota breweries, it was a bunch of regional breweries and different things like that. This couple, they were a bit older. They were very much they were hippies? They were hippies. And this was I had much longer, bushier hair, more voluminous. And I'm pretty sure this woman was stoned out of her mind. Because she just walked up to me and she immediately started like putting her fingers through my hair. She's like, Oh no, your hair is beautiful. I'm like, why are you touching me? I don't like people touching my hair. I don't like people messing up my hair. Yeah. I don't want strangers aggressively, slash moderately, sensually rubbing their fingers through my hair.
SPEAKER_02Even though she was complimenting you at the same time.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it was very weird. I don't know. And her husband was there, and their two kids were like early, mid-20s.
SPEAKER_02Dan, right now in my head, all I'm thinking is like the whole family is running their fingers through your hair.
SPEAKER_03It was just the gal. And then every year after that, we would run into them.
SPEAKER_01Oh no.
SPEAKER_03And there was there was one time when we we were also hanging out with some friends. The gal's name was Jody, and her boyfriend was Dennis. And on Friday night, we hung out with Jody and Dennis, and we went to this like industry party after their they would have their guild meeting, and then they'd all go to this place called the Rat Skeller. It's like the lower level of a restaurant, and it used to be like a speakeasy. Oh, cool. And it's a cave, it's really cool down there, and it was like everybody, and there were so many different people. And my friend Megan Parker, who now works for Fair State, I was like, Megan, can you get us into this like Rat Skeller thing? She's like, Yeah, just go to that elevator and hit the down button and just like look like you know where you're going, and it'll be fine. Like, okay. And that was a lesson. I feel like you can get in anywhere if you look like you know where you're going. Oh, yeah. So we went down there, and Jody and Dennis were having a little bit of a lover's quarrel. And then that lovers quarrel turned into like a very tense couple of days to the point where on the way home, Jody left without Dennis. Oh. And he was stuck up there. And it was really funny because I guess they're just, you know, there's some couples that are just like oil and water. And they just love to argue, and it's just like, oh, that's just Jody and Dennis. And then they got back together and kind of off and on, off and on. I don't think Jody moved to North Carolina. She might be back now. Um, I run into Dennis all the time. He is a St. Paul firefighter. His nickname is the Velvet Hammer, which I also think is funny. It's not anything gross. It's just that's like the brand of coffee that their firehouse gets from Costco. It's called like Velvet Something, and they're like, You're the Velvet Hammer, because you drink a lot of that Velvet Something coffee. I don't know. It's really funny. His family owns the Dubliner. Oh. So that that's how there's a there's a whole I could tell more stories, but this is not the Dan Bobian All Pines North story. All this is to say that one year. Oh, that's right. Okay. So we ran into Jody, and this was after the festival, and she was like, I don't know where the fuck Dennis is, but your hippie people just ran by. They're like, oh my gosh, the hippies.
SPEAKER_02Everybody knows your hippie people.
SPEAKER_03And then they didn't have Alpines during COVID. And then when it came back in 2021, everybody went up to Alpines. And it was just like people were raring to go. People got really, really drunk, and everybody was out of their minds. And I was standing at a crosswalk with my friends Chris and Kate. And we're going to the whiskey bar. And I turn around, I see this woman who has a horse and dragon t-shirt. I'm like, I have that same t-shirt. And I look up, it's the hippie lady. I'm like, oh my god, it's you. This was after COVID. So it was like a really special moment. And we just all three of us just like gave each other a big hug.
SPEAKER_02Did you let her touch your hair?
SPEAKER_03I yes. She, I'm like, you can run your well, it was kind of sad because then my hair was shorter then. One year I was wearing a hat and she came over. She's like, Where's your hair? I'm like, it's under the hat. Do I need to see if my hair's under a hat, it's already messed up. So then you can touch it all you want. But I digress.
SPEAKER_02I want to hear this lady's side of there's this guy who goes to Alpines and he's got the best hair.
SPEAKER_03And then she was like, you guys should come back to our campsite. Oh my. We're staying at Spirit Mountain. I'm like, we're not going to that fucking campsite. I'll tell you that right now. I'll take my chances with the sturgeon in the lake. I don't know what's going to happen if we go there. This is very weird. One year they almost hit me with a bike. They were on bike, so they're like, Dan! It's been good. I think I have a picture of every year. I'll have to curate a selection and show you sometime. But yeah, it's just one of those. I think it doesn't get any more all pints north than that.
SPEAKER_02That's pretty good.
SPEAKER_03You know? So, anyhow, I need to go back to Canal Park because the last time I was there, I was distracted by Jody and her feud and the dancing hippies. I mean, thank you for coming to my tech talk. Yeah. TED Talk.
SPEAKER_02Where were we? We were at northbound.
SPEAKER_03Yes. Yeah. So we had, I had some, they had a great beer selection there. Andy has a nice pub ale. It's an extra special amber, because if you call it extra special bitter, people go a little wacky.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_03And he had a cask of it. So I wanted to try the cask. So that's when I went there, and I wanted to try a little bit of the icebach. And I wanted to try some doppelbach. And I I wanted to try the Mybach, but I knew we were going to bad weather. I'm like, I can't. I didn't bring my second liver today, so this just has to be.
SPEAKER_02You gotta pace yourself.
SPEAKER_03So I need to go back and try their Mybach. It's definitely Mybach season.
SPEAKER_02Oh, darn, you have to go back.
SPEAKER_03I know. That's a bummer. So we went there, and then I was like, well, I gotta get I gotta get back. I gotta I forgot. I stupidly forgot the wristbands that bad weather was nice enough to send me in the mail at my house, so I needed to go back and grab the wristbands.
SPEAKER_02Abandoned me.
SPEAKER_03Well, I said I was leaving.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. And I didn't really think about what was gonna happen after that.
SPEAKER_03And you got in a conversation with some guy. He was This was not okay, this was the second time you've had a conversation with this guy.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_03Like the first time was when we went there for my birthday.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_03And he was there, and I didn't hear what he was saying. I didn't realize he was very entertaining.
SPEAKER_02He's got a lot to say, but he has a lot to say, and he's not gonna stop talking. So luckily Andy came over at one point because he was coming with us to to go to bad weather to the outdoor arcade. So he he came over and he's like, Oh, I you know, is it is it time to go? Are you getting ready? I'm like, Yep, yep. So thank you, thank you, Andy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's yeah. So then we met up there, played a bunch of pinball, played some ski ball.
SPEAKER_02The ski b so I I love skee ball. Yeah, but there were also a lot of kids running around, so all I could think about was all of the snotlow's little kids who were touching the skee ball balls, and now I'm touching the skee ball balls.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It was fine. I survived.
SPEAKER_03I think you know, little mybach would just knock out any of those germs. Yeah. Would be good. That was a lot of yeah, it was a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_02What was they they had a lot of pinball games?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I was just gonna ask, what was your favorite version?
SPEAKER_02My favorite one was the pirates, the pirates game.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you were doing really well at that. Yeah. You kept getting the pirate ship to move. Yeah. That was fun.
SPEAKER_02It was really cool. And some some of the other ones were good too. The one that I thought I was really gonna like that really didn't agree with me was the Jurassic Park one. That game was really mean to me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, that one was hard.
SPEAKER_02I don't know why.
SPEAKER_03Which is strange because that's the one they have at Dual Citizen, and I think I've played that one before, and I thought I really liked it, but I it was like a lot harder.
SPEAKER_02That game had it out for me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. We did the Venom one. That was pretty tough too.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Because the gaps between the paddles I thought were not regulation. I wanted to measure. Yeah. This is not regulation. What was your favorite? This is um, I think I really liked. Let's see. It was probably the pirate one. Because that one was good. There was uh there was another one. What was to the left of Jurassic Park? I only played it like one or two times because that was like where this group was just standing and congregating, and I'm like, I think whatever it was, you played it and I didn't.
SPEAKER_02Was that the Foo Fighters one?
SPEAKER_03Yes, that one. That was cool.
SPEAKER_02We were told about that one.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, that was good.
SPEAKER_02That had strong recommendations.
SPEAKER_03Yep, but yeah, by far my favorite game of the night was Galaga. We didn't even make it to Turtles in Time. No. That's a really fun game. I sunk a lot of quarters into that at the Signal Hills Mall growing up in West St. Paul. That was a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_02They also had a really fancy looking bowling game back there.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_02Like it looked brand. I think they said it was new. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. We didn't do the basketball shooting either. We would have just smoked everybody, Dan. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's fine.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that was good.
SPEAKER_02Would definitely recommend that when it comes around again next year.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's always the first weekend of May, Friday through Sunday. And then, you know, pro tip don't take your wristband off. Yes. Just leave it and just come back, as I would do later in the weekend.
SPEAKER_02I did, like, I left mine on on Friday night. I took it off on Saturday morning before I left to go to Town Hall brewing because I thought, we're gonna be in Minneapolis. There's no chance we're gonna go back over to St. Paul. I don't need this.
SPEAKER_03I know. I was really craving a burger from Bullshorn. It's like, how about Bullshorn? Bullshorn?
SPEAKER_02Bullhorn.
SPEAKER_03Did anybody else hear that? Bullshorn? People want to go to Bullshorn. How about Waldman? I'm like, oh.
SPEAKER_02Again, they were like, they were St. Paulers that are like, I want to go somewhere close to home.
SPEAKER_03Just like, God. That was fine. It was great. Because uh, you know It all worked out Waldman. Yeah, that was fun. And you had it, okay. So hold on, we're getting it. Okay, you need to take the reins. I'm too random today.
SPEAKER_02On Saturday, we went to Town Hall Brewing in Minneapolis for the blessing of the Mybach.
SPEAKER_03It was great. That was only my third time doing that.
SPEAKER_02That was my first time.
SPEAKER_03Some people have done it like 20 times.
SPEAKER_02Seriously? Yeah. Here's the thing. I get that blessing of the Mybach sounds like it might have some kind of religious connotation to it. I totally ignored that part and was just, I thought we were all just gonna like raise a Mybach in the air and be like, yay, beer, drink. No, it's actually a whole ceremony, and there was Exactly. There was actually a priest, maybe like three priests. Yeah. Like real priests, men of the clock. They did a whole ceremony with multiple blessings, and people were reciting things and responding, and I mean they did give you a hymnal. There was a hymnal.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It was fun.
SPEAKER_02It was again, I don't know what goes on inside my head, but that was not it.
SPEAKER_03Well, your first question was when we were talking about it at the Wandering Leaf anniversary party, you're like, is this something we need to be in costume for?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I thought it was gonna be a funny costume thing.
SPEAKER_03That's really interesting because I'm like, what would you have worn? If I would have said yes, and in all seriousness, be like, yeah, wear a costume, dealer's choice, what would you have showed up in?
SPEAKER_02I don't know.
SPEAKER_03I'm really I'm really curious about that.
SPEAKER_02Again, I think I was blocking out like the religious part of blessing, and I would have been like some little forest sprite. Like, yay, bless this beer. How about a beer?
SPEAKER_03That's what I'm saying. Has anybody has anybody seen Courtney? Yes, I'm here, right, from the woods. Oh my god, what's happening? A forest sprite. Good to know.
SPEAKER_02That's my go-to for everything. That's right.
SPEAKER_03Hey, we're it's the annual St. Nicholas Day. Why is she dressed as a forest sprite? It's just what she does. It's just the thing. That's good. Yeah, well, I mean, next year. It would have been a little cold dressed as a forest sprite. It was warm when we got there. It was warm, and it's a little bit more. I was so excited because I'm like, oh yeah, let's sit on the patio. And then they opened up the doors, and then like the scar, the skies darkened, and it got real windy. So windy, in fact, that it blew an entire beer into Marcus's crotch.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And that was unfortunate for him, entertaining for us.
SPEAKER_02He he doubled down on the unfortunate things that happened that day.
SPEAKER_03That's right. What was the other thing?
SPEAKER_02He was served, he was served a beer and a pint glass, and there was this big crack that went like almost all the way around the room.
SPEAKER_03It looked like it had been given a Colombian necktie.
SPEAKER_02And he he was served the beer, and then our server disappeared. And then a woman came over to clear empty glasses away from our table, and we tried, like everybody had like an open mouth, like they were about to start to say, like, his beer, we need to we need a different glass. It's cracked. Nobody could get a single word out, and she just said, I am not your server.
SPEAKER_03No, she's like, that's not my section, and then just went and like She's gone. Okay, whatever happened to all hands on deck.
SPEAKER_02No, she was not helping with that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, she was a little stressed. Oh, there were a lot of people there. There were a lot of people. So to kind of set the scene for people who have never been, they do this yearly. They typically do the blessing from five to six. And so you get a beer, and you're not supposed to drink the beer until it's blessed.
SPEAKER_02Some people did, and I think they're gonna have bad luck for a year.
SPEAKER_03Well, that one guy at the other table did it. I'm like, you're gonna be gonna be in a big meeting one time in your corporate America job, and you're gonna overtrust a fart, and the rest is gonna be history.
SPEAKER_02Then you're gonna know it's because of that mybach.
SPEAKER_03You shouldn't have sipped the MyBach before it was blessed. So they do the prayer, they do the songs, there's the dancing of the forest sprites, and then they What? Where are we?
SPEAKER_00I don't like this game.
SPEAKER_03Then they come around with pictures of MyBach and continue to top you off. They just kept refilling until it's time to go. So that was fun. Andy was there. Andy brought some friends.
SPEAKER_02It turned into a little party.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So Andy brought his friend Jake, who used to brew up at Hammerheart. Now he's an electrician. His friend Chad. Wait, no, Chad was from. Friday night. Yeah. What was his friend? Andy has too many friends. He's got a lot of friends. He's a very affable young man.
SPEAKER_02It's hard to keep track of your friends, Andy.
SPEAKER_03So his friend who was there, he works at Bang, and I felt it really awkward because he's like, how about we go to Bang? And I'm like, uh I can't. I think I s I'm like, I don't um, I don't like Bang. Not because of the beers, it's just like I don't like Kurnza. And they put Kurnza in every beer, and I feel like it comes off as very astringent. And I feel like that was like me putting an ice cold wet blanket on the fun. And I felt bad about it. I'm like, if you guys want to go to Bang, that's fine. I'll go to the fucking Bullshorn like I wanted to go. But that's um so we wound up going to Waldman. But then Andy disappeared, and I come to find out he's down in the basement of Town Hall. Talking with Mike Hoops and a bunch of other people. I was like, Andy! Jim Stroner was there? The guy with the long hair.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. He was super nice.
SPEAKER_03He's very nice. He was telling us that his wife got a cell phone.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Which is monumental. Now there's a chance she'll be able to listen to my podcast on her cell phone. But Jim is hilarious. He's a nature photographer, he was an engineer, he's retired, and all he does is travel. He travels the world. He's a world-class photographer, super nice guy, hilarious. I he makes me laugh constantly. He was fun to listen to. He just has a lot of funny jokes. He's got a very dry sense of humor. When I went to Colorado for Great American Beer Festival, the only time I've been out there, I met he was up in the mountains, up in Estes Park, doing nature photography in his camper. Oh. And I was like, Jim, when are you coming down from the mountains? Because he was going to GABF. We were going to like some stuff with him. He's like, I'll come down. Let me know where you want me to meet you. And I'm like, well, what time will you be? He's like, it depends on the weather. Okay. So we plan to meet at Grim Brothers Brew House in Loveland, Colorado, which is just 20 minutes south of Fort Collins. And I'm like, we're gonna go there. We're gonna be here at this time. We walk in, I'm like, I wonder if he's here yet. My friend Chad's like, uh, is that the guy? I look over. And Jim, it's like that scene in uh Fellowship of the Ring when they go to the prancing pony and they're like asking for Gandalf, and Strider is in the corner, and he's like giving them the glare. And Jim was just like this. He was sitting there with his middle finger up at me. Oh no. And he like looked, I mean, he looked like a man that had been living in a trailer for three weeks in the fucking mountains of the foothills of Colorado. He's like, Is that your friend? I'm like, oh yeah, Jim. Hey.
SPEAKER_02He looks like my friend, right?
SPEAKER_03So that that was his nickname for many years, Strider. And then when he retired, he started growing his hair out. He always has had kind of long hair, then he started growing a long beard. Now we call him Gandalf the Gray.
SPEAKER_02Nice.
SPEAKER_03So it's very, it's very funny.
SPEAKER_02I was hoping you were gonna say, like, I was picturing him with all that hair because that's how I saw him. I was like imagining him in that bar with like some wildlife just hanging out that he brought down from the mountain with him.
SPEAKER_03Why not? Yeah, no, then we went to the tap and handle. I had the world's worst hamburger and watched the twins from the time from my three-minute walk from the Airbnb to the bar. I went from the twins being up 2-0 to being down four to two when they lost the play. The one that was when they used to they would do a one-game playoff game. We were playing against the Yankees. And Irvin Santana had a great year that year. They they pegged him to be the game one starter, and he didn't tell anybody that he was feeling arm discomfort, and his velocity was down like three miles an hour, and they just teed off on him. It was so frustrating. But I was there with Jim, Aaron Zier, Aaron's friend Josh, and we were drinking, they did a they had a tap takeover from Toplin Goliath, so they had all their big stouts on. We were just drinking big stouts, and it was probably, I remember specifically, the next morning driving back from Fort Collins, talking to my dad on the phone, and I said, I think this is this might be the happiest I've ever been.
SPEAKER_01Oh, oh, Dan.
SPEAKER_03It was, and I just, yeah, I was like on the highway heading back to Denver. I was gonna meet the Lupulin guys at a brewery in Louisville, Colorado, which is like on the way back. And I just remember talking to my dad, just having a great conversation with him, and he's like, How is it? I'm like, this is just great. He knew that I loved Colorado so much. He knew that I just something about that place is magical. Fort Collins, especially, is just such a magical place. And I yeah, I just remember that moment. Like it was sunny, driving back early October, because that was that was Wednesday. It was Wednesday afternoon. So we were heading back because I was going to the What the Funk uh beer festival that night.
SPEAKER_01That's a good name for that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it was like a lot of sour beers, Wood Age beers. And then the next day was Thursday, which was like Great American Beer Festival. And the reason I was out there was because myself and Eric Gwentling, we were both the main writers for Beer Ploma at the time, and we had brewed a beer that Lupilin entered in uh Great American Beer Festival. Nice. So they're like, You helped us brew this beer, we'll buy you a brewer's pass as you come out with us. It was incredible.
SPEAKER_02That's so cool.
SPEAKER_03And then they wound up winning gold for their Dortmunder. We got to go on stage and give Charlie Papesian a fist bump. And that was really, really cool. And I was on Cloud Nine for the entire time. It was great. So yeah, that was Jim Stroner. I've known him for many years. He's just a great person. He and his wife Lori are just awesome. Like he was saying, he's off to Denmark soon. I mean, he's been in Africa, he's been to they went to Iceland, they they go everywhere. It's just living photographer. Well, you know, he does that. Yeah, he always brings his photography equipment. Usually, I mean, a lot of times when he went to Africa, he got great pictures of wildlife, and it was like a guided thing, so they got like the right spots to see the animals and everything. It was just amazing. But he's the type of person that will set his alarm for 3:30 and climb up a hill to set up his tripod to get the sunrise. He just knows just exactly. And then, of course, the pictures turn out absolutely magnificent.
SPEAKER_02That's really cool.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so we met Jim. You met Jim at the Blessing of a Mybach, and then it was time to go do something else. I wasn't quite sure what we were gonna do after.
SPEAKER_02I mean, again, you were really pushing for Bullshorn.
SPEAKER_03Pushing for Bullshorn, but that's only because I love their burgers. I've been thinking about the burgers, like burgers on the mine. But we uh we opted for Waldman, which was great. I had the schnitzel sandwich. You had like, I think that was like the best beer cheese soup I've ever had.
SPEAKER_02Beer cheese soup.
SPEAKER_03Holy cats at Waldman. That was really, really good.
SPEAKER_02I've been craving it. It was so good.
SPEAKER_03Had you had it before?
SPEAKER_02No. No, I was just thinking like I didn't want I didn't want like a big meal and soup like a few. Soup just sounded really good.
SPEAKER_03Are you kind of a freeze baby? Do you get cold easily?
SPEAKER_02I have like a really really narrow temperature range of when I'm comfortable. Yeah. And if I'm on either side of it, you're gonna hear me complaining very vocally that I am too cold or I am too hot and I'm unhappy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well, yeah, and we we got to sit in the front room at Waldman, which is the original footprint of the building. So the two people that owned Waldman, Anton and Wilhelmina, their bedroom was right upstairs. Oh in the Buffalo room.
SPEAKER_02I've been in that room.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It's cool.
SPEAKER_03It is.
SPEAKER_02And we were sitting right next to like uh a little heater stove, and I we asked them, like, could you turn this on? And they're like, no. No, that's sorry. Yeah. Not happening.
SPEAKER_03That was yeah, it was a fun day.
SPEAKER_02It was a super fun day and really fun people to hang out with.
SPEAKER_03Yep. Yeah, I love that that that day felt like pre-COVID when you just go out and just meet up with people and you're I mean, we had like a I mean, I knew I wanted to do the blessing, but beyond that, I really didn't have much of an agenda. And it turned out to be quite the good time.
SPEAKER_02And then you went over and played more games after that because you still had your wristband on.
SPEAKER_03I still had my wristband on. E, one of the brewers at Bad Weather, was working the tent with her partner, Kayla, and we sat and chatted for a little bit, had a Mexican lager, got on Galaga, played that for a while. It was just nice. I don't know. It was just good. Yeah, all in all, a very good weekend.
SPEAKER_02Solid weekend. And I I went back out on Sunday.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_02I went down to Trove in Burnsville on Sunday. My friend Brian was doing a fun run that was also uh slash walk slash crawl.
SPEAKER_01Oh boy.
SPEAKER_02I don't know. Dog friendly, just organized a little thing down at Trove. So went down there. I took my BFF Bella and one of her moms, Victoria, came with me. So we went and we we walked. We were not running. And it turns out that everybody walked because there were quite a few dogs in the group here. Oh, nice. Um so we we did uh a fun walk and then went back to Trove and had some beers and hung out for a while.
SPEAKER_03Oh good.
SPEAKER_02Sunday was a nice day.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I went on a bike ride. I went on a very long bike ride that day. It was great.
SPEAKER_02Perfect weather for being outside. Although we are drinking all the beers inside. That's okay.
SPEAKER_03Do they they don't really have a patio though, do they?
SPEAKER_02They do have a patio like out by the parking lot, but they also have um there's like a planter that's right by their front door that a duck has decided to lay her eggs in.
SPEAKER_03Oh, cool.
SPEAKER_02So when you go to go in there, or it can be territorial. You you kind of don't like somebody Brian pointed out the duck to me because I didn't originally like see it. I think he told me it was there and I still didn't see it. But that duck is just in the planter, right next to you, giving you a little side eye, but not flinching.
SPEAKER_03Well, yeah, they're hunkered down, keeping their eggs warm.
SPEAKER_02And there were so many dogs going in and out that front door, and that duck just stood her ground.
SPEAKER_03That's crazy. Growing up, we had a male and female mallard who would every spring come back and nest in our yard. I named them Dwayne and Darlene. Oh, so they were very cute. And they would, yeah, they would, I mean, she'd set up her nest in one of the gardens, and they'd just be there. I think mallards are absolutely beautiful.
SPEAKER_02Of all the spots though, to to drop your eggs, that was probably not a great one.
SPEAKER_03They'll just do that wherever and just like, okay. There was a no, you weren't there. Who was I who was I with? There was at 56 last year, a duck had like done the same thing in like one of their planters right by the door.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03That's not a nature place. Like it's just kind of funny. So good times.
SPEAKER_02Don't put it there. I I kept asking, like, did somebody name the duck? I think the duck needs a name. It's kind of like the the mascot down there. Yeah, I would think.
SPEAKER_03I mean, I've seen brewery cats, I've seen brewery dogs, I've seen a brewery cockatoo, never a brewery duck. Maybe that's the next, maybe that's the next thing.
SPEAKER_02Could be.
SPEAKER_03What do we got on the horizon? What's next? We have some upcoming things that you've you've you want to check out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So May, Saturday, May 16th. Coming up like two, two weekends from now. It'll be like the weekend after this this episode is released. Yep. So you're probably hearing this maybe on a Tuesday-ish. It'll be the Saturday after that, May 16th. Boom Island is having their nights and pints event.
SPEAKER_01Nice.
SPEAKER_02So I went to this last year.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02We've talked about these guys before because I think they were supposed to be at Winter Beer Dabbler, and then because of the cold template temperatures, they had to back out and not be there. But it is the Twin Cities Wyvern's armored combat and also the flowers of battle, which I think is their their women's, their femme team.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02So it is it is armored combat. People are in armor, like metal armor. They're swinging weapons at each other and hitting each other and fighting and duking it out in like this little ring that they have set up. It is the coolest thing to watch.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, that'll be fun.
SPEAKER_02I am so excited. I went last year, it was a blast. They're doing it again this year. It's also uh this is a costume event, Dan. You are encouraged.
SPEAKER_03I'll see what I can do.
SPEAKER_02It is like a little mini renovation.
SPEAKER_03I don't know if I can deliver on the force right now.
SPEAKER_02Little mini wren fair. You can you can dress up in your medieval costumes, your fantasy costumes, and go watch the nights and sip some pints.
SPEAKER_03That's cool. Yeah. I like that.
SPEAKER_02You need to see the armored combat.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that sounds fun.
SPEAKER_02And then after that, we have Lupalin, their anniversary party on May 30th.
SPEAKER_03Yes. It's gonna be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle theme.
SPEAKER_02For the Pizza Place.
SPEAKER_03For the Pizza Place.
SPEAKER_02That's awesome.
SPEAKER_03And that will be that will be funny.
SPEAKER_02Wait, are we supposed to dress up? Everything's a costume event, Dan. Are we talking about Ninja Turtles?
SPEAKER_03I asked you what turtle you were, and you were like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02The orange one.
SPEAKER_03Michael, do you know you don't even know them by name? Did you watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
SPEAKER_02Yes, all the time.
SPEAKER_03What was the blue one's name?
SPEAKER_02I don't know all the colors with the names. There's Leonardo and Donatello and Michelangelo, and who's the fourth one?
SPEAKER_01Rafael.
SPEAKER_03God believe the answer you were looking for is Raphael.
SPEAKER_02Nobody cares about that one. Is he the orange one?
SPEAKER_03No, that's Michelangelo.
SPEAKER_02That's the one I am, so I don't care about the rest.
SPEAKER_03Anyhow, brush up on your Teenage Mutant Ninja trivia. And if you want to go in costume, you could do that. Or you could dress in all yellow and be April O'Neal. Or you could be Shredder or you could be Splinter or Casey Jones.
SPEAKER_02Got a lot of options.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I had a ton of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figures, and I had the turtle van. It was one of the coolest action figure vehicles of all the action figure vehicles I had. That's counting some Star Wars ones, a lot of G.I. Joes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay, I'm gonna be really disappointed if we go to this and there are not people in turtle costumes.
SPEAKER_03What if there's turtles?
SPEAKER_02That'll kind of make up for it.
SPEAKER_03You should dress as the I Like Turtles kid. That would be next to it. What does that kid look like? You've never seen that meme?
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_03It's just like news ladies at a fair, and this kid is looks like he's got the plague. His eyes are all black. He's like, I like turtles. It's really funny. You gotta check that out. It's uh it's good.
SPEAKER_02Oh.
SPEAKER_03I'm sure there'll be people dressed up.
SPEAKER_02I'll work on that. It'll be fine.
SPEAKER_03I don't recommend that. I don't know. Maybe I or do. I'm excited. I think they're gonna have some special variants of pizzas there.
SPEAKER_02I mean, uh was really, really good.
SPEAKER_03And they're doing two beer releases, so it'll be fun.
SPEAKER_02I'm looking forward to that.
SPEAKER_03That was I remember last year. That was uh that was on like I was waiting in line and I felt this tap on my shoulder. I turned around. It was you.
SPEAKER_02That's not weird at all.
SPEAKER_03I was like, oh, hello, how are you doing? I don't think I had seen you since the winter dabbler.
SPEAKER_02That's probably true.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And then all of a sudden I was in line behind you.
SPEAKER_03And now we're ho we're we're hosting a podcast. Look how far we've been. That's just great.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02The other event I have on the horizon is not until Friday, June 26th, but it's a really big one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02It is the Pride Beer Dabbler at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. I unfortunately am going to be out of town in Dallas for work. And I cannot explain to you how sad I am.
SPEAKER_03Well, I'm sure Dallas at the end of June is gonna be real nice.
SPEAKER_02It will not be. It's gonna be super hot. I'm gonna be super unhappy, and why am I not at Pride Dabbler?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'll take pictures.
SPEAKER_02Thanks.
SPEAKER_03It'll be it'll be good.
SPEAKER_02Look at all the fun I'm having.
SPEAKER_03Hey, look at this. I dressed as a forest nymph, so you could have. Oh my god. So you feel like you're here. Yeah. Now that's a that's one where a lot of people dress up. Because the breweries, usually there's usually a theme in a lot of the breweries that go dress up as the theme. Like one year they did like musical icons and like Elton John, Lady Gaga. Like it was really, really cool.
SPEAKER_02You're trying to make me more upset that I'm gonna miss this.
SPEAKER_03No, I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Tickets are on sale now, so everybody else who can go, you should go grab a ticket.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, get your tickets.
SPEAKER_02You can all taunt me.
SPEAKER_03Early and often. Yeah, that's that's fun. Summer's just it's almost here. Almost here. We got like one month left. I think there's like eight, I don't know. I I had a count the other day of like days left of school. It's like 22 or something, so we're getting there.
SPEAKER_02You're supposed to have a solid count, Dan. I know. Come on.
SPEAKER_03I know.
SPEAKER_02What kind of teacher are you?
SPEAKER_03Uh mediocre at best.
SPEAKER_02Oh. That's what I have on the horizon.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02There's a lot of other stuff happening here.
SPEAKER_03Yep. Yeah, there'll be more, there'll be more things, and you know, just keep listening to the brewery adventure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Here, I think we probably will do We were talking about Tillion.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_03Heading up there or heading down there, I should say. We'll have a lot more fun stuff in store.
SPEAKER_02Some little mini road trips. We're definitely going down to Rochester. I feel like there's a smattering of breweries I want to go to in Rochester.
SPEAKER_03Yep. And one place where you can get like 30 seltzers on tap.
SPEAKER_02I don't know if I need to go there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we're not. Oh. But such a place exists.
SPEAKER_02Woo! I mean, I don't mind a seltzer. I don't know that I would drive all the way down to Rochester for seltzer, though.
SPEAKER_01Nope.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_01Nope.
SPEAKER_02It's okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's what I know. Alright. You should all check your local craft brewery to see what events they have going on because I'm sure that there are some fun things happening.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I mean, Arta World. That's also the other big thing. Yeah. And I mean, I know we're getting closer and closer to the Dangerous Man tap room opening.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Do you have it? Do you have a date?
SPEAKER_03I'll probably have a date. I feel like you have a date now and you just can't say it. I'm interviewing Jeremy Coons, the owner. Next week. So he'll have some details. So you'll just have to either pay attention to social media or wait for the next episode of a one-pint stand to come out and all the details.
SPEAKER_02Welcome back, Dangerous Man.
SPEAKER_03Yes, I'm excited. Yeah, and then Broken Clock does their like sound wave mus outdoor music thing on the 16th. So there's a lot going on in Minneapolis. Those of us in St. Paul will be just quietly gardening, listening to Enya in our forest nymph uniforms. Say the way, say the way, say the way. What?
SPEAKER_02With that, Dan, where can people find you?
SPEAKER_03People can find me uh by searching up a one pint stand. I'm on Instagram, Facebook, Blue Sky, Mastodon, and TikTok. And if you want to read about stories, go to a onepintstand.com because I'm about halfway through with the second article from our Milwaukee trip.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03First one was a deep dive into the mustard museum. So that was a lot of fun. Yeah, so a lot of written stuff on there.
SPEAKER_02Awesome. I am Courtney. You can find me at the Brewery Adventure on Instagram, or you can email me, Courtney at the BreweryAventventure.com, or visit thebreweryadventure.com if you'd like to go to the website and check out our previous episodes. That's all we've got. Again, go support your local craft brewery.
SPEAKER_03Yes, get outside. Someday it'll be 75 and sunny.
SPEAKER_02We could just get like multiple days that are nice.
SPEAKER_03I know. It gets nice and then it gets crappy. Gardening.
SPEAKER_02You are gonna be gardening to Enya.
SPEAKER_03I wasn't joking. That was the only honest thing I said all podcasts.
SPEAKER_02Wait, are you gonna be wearing a forest nymph costume?
SPEAKER_03Oh only time will tell. Check my neighbor's ring cam. Let's do this. Oh that's not a good one. Okay, yeah, that's all I got.
SPEAKER_02That's all we got. We will see you next time on the brewery adventure.
SPEAKER_03Cheers!
SPEAKER_02I think the microphones hit and the glasses hit. Everything.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. You guys got it nice.
SPEAKER_03Oh my god. All right. Cut it. Cut it.
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