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
One Last Pour in Duluth
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We're recapping our 2026 All Pints North adventure with a bittersweet farewell to Duluth! Grab a pint and join us as we raise a glass to APN in Duluth and look ahead to what the future holds in Bemidji.
EPISODE BEERS (from Wandering Leaf Brewing):
Courtney: Bloom, Fruited Blonde (Passionfruit + Orange + Guava)
Dan: Ossuary, Helles
LINKS:
- MN Craft Brewers Guild
- Castle Danger 15th Anniversary Party (8/15)
- Giesenbräu's Brew Prague (8/15)
- Insight's Augtoberfest (8/15)
- Steel Toe 15 Year Anniversary Week (8/17 - 8/23)
- Free Air Life Co.
- ROMP Bags
- Courtney’s Untappd
- Dan’s Untappd
- A One Pint Stand
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_04And I'm Dan. We're here to dive into the world of your local brewery.
SPEAKER_00It's not just about the beer, it's about the vibe, the people, and the stories behind every tap room.
SPEAKER_04From 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_00Solid work. Oh, bonk. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Tastes like first place. Osluary, baby. At Wandering Leaf.
SPEAKER_00Once again at Wandering Leaf, our home away from home.
SPEAKER_04How would you on a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your energy level on this the the post Alpines North Monday?
SPEAKER_00My energy level crashed at Alpines North.
SPEAKER_04Yes, I remember it like it was yesterday.
SPEAKER_00I've I feel like I've had a month of traveling with Dallas, going up to the lake a couple of times, um, doing some some pet sitting where I'm not I'm not at home. I've I feel like it's been a month of me in other places, and I definitely feel like over the weekend it all kind of came crashing down.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah. You know, travel is exhausting, whether it's for pleasure or for work, and I think that after a trip, you kind of need a day.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And sometimes more.
SPEAKER_00Sometimes more.
SPEAKER_04You know, because you were, yeah, you were, you did not spend a lot of time at your home address in the month of July.
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_04So we're here at Wandering Leaf, the dogs are barking, the plants are green, and the beer's the beer is bubbly.
SPEAKER_00And cold.
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_00Beer is delicious. You are drinking.
SPEAKER_04I've got the ossuary, the gold medal winning Hellas that I really, really love. It's kind of one of my go-tos here. Between that or the propagation pills.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Kind of go-to either one of those. And kind of then the second one will be the other one. So it's kind of like, you know, kind of.
SPEAKER_00We go back and forth.
SPEAKER_04Go back and forth. And then whatever else they have on tap. I know they just put on a gamber ale that's really good. They've got, I think they've still got their they've got a porter on.
SPEAKER_00I gave a long look at that pickle theory beer.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00But it it said it was cucumber and dill, not like dill pickle.
SPEAKER_04Courtney, I have some bad news for you. All pickles are cucumbers.
SPEAKER_00I know, I know. I don't like cucumbers, but I love a good dill pickle.
SPEAKER_04That's right. Do you have the same thing? Do you like do you like grapes and not raisins or vice versa? Or do you like both?
SPEAKER_00I like both.
SPEAKER_04Okay, interesting.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I wonder how many other foods there are out there that are like that. Because I know a lot of people that don't like cucumbers that like pickles.
SPEAKER_00It's probably the same way for me with tomatoes. If you give me something that has raw tomato in it, I absolutely hate it. But if you like a a pico de gallo or like a bloody Mary. No, love love a bloody Mary.
SPEAKER_04Oh, okay. Love a Bloody Mary.
SPEAKER_00Love pizza sauce. And salsa where it's not like fresh tomato. Yep. It's cooked in some way or whatever.
SPEAKER_04Is it a consistency thing for the tomato? It's a taste thing.
SPEAKER_00It's a flavor thing. Hate it. But you like that raw tomato like seeps over everything else and it just ruins whatever it's in.
SPEAKER_04It is pretty liquidy. Sometimes on a burger, if there's too many tomatoes, it does really mess it up. But in the south, they have a dish called tomato pie. And Karen made it one time because we had a butt ton of tomatoes, and it was really good.
SPEAKER_00Are the tomatoes cooked?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. They're like you salt them to extract a lot of the moisture, and then you pat them dry, and then you layer them in a like in a like a pie crust. And there's other stuff. There's like cheese. I can't remember what else there is. It's it it sounds really weird. I'm like, tomato pie, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00Why would you do that?
SPEAKER_04I don't know if I like that because I don't love a ton of cooked tomatoes. I don't like chunky tomato sauce. When I make spaghetti at home, I do not use like the whole peeled tomatoes. I use tomato puree. I don't like and I don't like chunky salsa. It's like disgusting to me. But that for me is a texture thing.
SPEAKER_00I love chunky salsa.
SPEAKER_04Interesting.
SPEAKER_00But not a pico.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Well, as I've learned to make salsas, I every time I make them, I put them in the food processor. So they're like how you would have them in a restaurant. But very like there's it's still like a thick consistency, but it's not like you're not getting chunks of anything.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But anti-chunk.
SPEAKER_04I'm anti-chunk. Despite my uh my my body shape. Uh okay. We're here. If you're anti-chunk, this is not the podcast for you. Um what other trying to think of now other things. But okay, so you you getting back to the sort of meander.
SPEAKER_00We we took a little detour. That happens.
SPEAKER_04Uh we're back on track now. So you did not go with the what is it called? The dilly of a pickle? What's the beer?
SPEAKER_00Uh it's called pickle theory here. Again, gave it a long look, but ended up going with bloom, the uh the blonde, the fruited blonde, fashion fruit orange guava.
SPEAKER_04What did we have? We were here like a month ago, and they made a concoction of that that was like half and half. Half bloom and half something else. Was it the super low key?
SPEAKER_00It might have been.
SPEAKER_04That was good.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04That kind of cut the acidity for me. Because while I like it, it doesn't like me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04The sour beers. So I remarkably was able to get up this morning and get a bunch done. Although I did have an awkward, an awkward interaction online. I was messaging two different people in Facebook Messenger, and some and it was on my laptop. And sometimes when you have that, the the windows pop up differently, and then it's like, I thought, because uh it was Kimberly was like, How how are you doing today? And I was like, Oh, good, I'm getting a lot of work done, but I'm still in my robe. And then I had also messaged Jen Fox from Spyro thanking her. She said a really nice thing uh to me at the festival about my dad. And so I was like, Hey, thank you so much. So I had that chat window open, and then I thought I was replying to Kimberly and telling her, like, I've been real productive and I'm still in my robe. And I'm like, oh my god, that was so awkward. And I'm like, uh, that was meant for somebody else because they asked me how my day was going. She's like, sounds like a great day. So no harm, no foul. I'm not gonna get sued. But yeah, so I got I I put out my top, my well, my favorite brewery list of 2025, which everybody's like, somebody was like, 2025? I'm like, well, yes, I always do it a year later.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04In a perfect world, that beer list gets released in January or February.
SPEAKER_00This is not a perfect world.
SPEAKER_04It's not a perfect world, so it got released on August 3rd. But it's a nice guide. It's not a best of list. I used to do a top 25, top 30. I don't do that anymore. It's my favorite list.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So there's there's quite a few breweries on there. So it's like because as the breweries got more and more and the quality continued to rise, it was harder and harder to rank 30 breweries. And I just like decided.
SPEAKER_00Did you pick a number? Like I'm gonna do X number.
SPEAKER_04I broke it down into categories places for a logger, places for an IPA, places that were a little bit of a drive, which is like less than an hour outside of the Twin Cities, more than a drive, like more than an hour, and then Twin Cities Metro breweries, like the 494 or 694 loop. So there's a lot of good stuff up on there.
SPEAKER_00Here's my struggle. Yeah, this happens all the time. It happened so many times this weekend. If somebody asks me, what's your favorite brewery to go to? What's the favorite beer you had at APN? I freeze, I panic. I don't know. How can I call anything my favorite? It might change from the next minute. I can't do it.
SPEAKER_04And I think it's it's nice because when people ask me that, I'm like, I've got a whole article that fleshes it out. Go look.
SPEAKER_00But you're able to call things a favorite.
SPEAKER_04Well, right, yeah. Like Arbiter is a favorite, Town Hall is a favorite, Lupin is a favorite, Urza Minor is a favorite, Modest is a favorite, you know, there's like I can rattle off those Baris Diltoe. Like those are all the ones I I would I would say, and there's more, obviously. I spend a lot of time here at Wandering Leaf. But like if you want to objectively get into the nuts and bolts of it, you first have to have a criteria, and that's what I would do. And this was kind of like a cheat because when I started doing these lists, I said it had to be a place that I've physically been to in the last year.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_04Or had their beer frequently on tap. So if people were like, How come you haven't been to this brewery X in Bumblefuck, Minnesota? I'm like, Well, I haven't gone there, so I can't really. And that kind of gets you off the hook sometimes. People are like, hey, you should try this brewery, and they say the brewery that everybody trashes. Like, I'm like, Oh yeah, I'm not ever gonna go there, sorry, but you know, no, that's it's a hard pass. Also, there's breweries like Back Channel where people are like, How the hell do you have a top brewery list and you don't have back channel on there? I'm like, well, I've never been there, it's far for me to go.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And so there's different things like that. Shells is on there, you know, because I I have them a lot on tap. I've only actually been to Shells two times.
SPEAKER_00So ever in your life or last year?
SPEAKER_04Ever in my life.
SPEAKER_00Damn.
SPEAKER_04I know. But the point being that if you have a criteria, so it's like my criteria was I had to have been there or had their beer multiple times on tap.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_04They had to be like, they can't be on any like me too list or like union busting list or anything like that, or that their their owner is like a known racist, I don't talk of like, um, and it has to it factored in beer quality, beer variety, and tap room experience.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_04But a lot of people, if you put out a list, everybody's got opinions, and just some people, I'm like, well, this is just my experience. A lot of people are like, Well, you didn't have this on there. I'm like, did you read the descriptor? Obviously not. Can you read? What grade are you in? Why are your parents letting you be online so late at night? Like, I'd have all sorts of questions and be like, this is just my opinion. If you want to put out your list, go do it. Anyone can create a website.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. They'd be like, this guy doesn't know anything.
SPEAKER_04Lists are very polarizing. There's somebody on the Minnesota craft beer Reddit page that's always doing like, what's your favorite this? What's your favorite that? And they don't give any criteria. And I'm just like, this is a stupid conversation to have. Because if you don't have criteria and you don't have a way to rate something, how are you possibly gonna have a discussion about it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And somebody might say, Oh, I really love like well, that that brewery and that's my favorite brewery. Well, it's not good, and that's and that is fact. Like, their beer is not good. Now, if you like that experience, the the the tap room is very cool if you are into like that thing, but like I have been in there multiple times. I have had awful beer and I've had pretty bad customer service. So I don't ever when somebody says, Yeah, that's a good brewery, I always ask, what's good about it? What did you like about it? Tell me your experience because it's possible to go to a brewery and have two different experiences. There's so many variables.
SPEAKER_03Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_04But like their beer is just flawed in a lot of ways, and that and that's that. There's a lot of people that that think that. And that's okay, because they're still in business, so obviously they've got a following, and that's great. Am I gonna go there and spend money? No, because I'd have to drive by seven or eight breweries that I really like to get there, and I'm not doing that. But if you want to see my favorite brewery list, go to onepine stand.com and if I missed one, plop it in the comments. Tell me your favorite breweries. Uh, because it is, I do like a good favorite brewery discussion. I don't think it's very worthwhile to do a best brewery. I think we know who the quality breweries are, and then after that, it's very subjective. It's you know, if you love to pick just if you I and and like I can't go anywhere, I wouldn't go anywhere that has like a ton of sours, because like I mentioned earlier, there aren't enough tums in the world for me to enjoy a whole night of drinking sours. I like them, but they don't like me. So it's kind of just like the vibe. I I'm not I ch I tend to avoid like the hip cool places because I'm 47 and a half years old, and I'm not hip and I'm not cool, so I want I want a laid back experience. But like the Hayes Bros who love to go to the trendy ones is like that's cool, they can go there. I will oftentimes choose a more relaxed atmosphere, so everybody's different. Now that doesn't mean that like you know, some people go to barrel theory all the time. Barrel Theory's beers are outstanding, but there's something about sometimes the tap room vibe that I just don't I don't find relaxing. So I still haven't been there. Yeah. Well we should we should go sometime because their beers are phenomenal. And they have the BCC collab de pale ale on there. So I haven't tried their version of it yet. So maybe maybe we need to do that.
SPEAKER_00So I mean we were going to go there for Bree's film watch party thing. And then they didn't show it. They didn't do it. So I I would have gone.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00I had intentions of going, yeah. But you pulled my event.
SPEAKER_04Oh well.
SPEAKER_00That's what happens.
SPEAKER_04What are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. All right, back to APN.
SPEAKER_04Back to APN, All Pints North.
SPEAKER_00The wild weekend in Duluth.
SPEAKER_04The wild weekend in Duluth. You know, I'm not gonna say it's the last time I'm ever gonna go to Duluth, but it's uh the last time All Pints North is gonna be there, which is kind of sad.
SPEAKER_00It was it I carried that with me all weekend and it bummed me out.
SPEAKER_04Did you feel like because I think some people had that knowledge in mind and they were like, I'm gonna make this the best All Pints ever. And they tried to, you know, squeeze every bit of juice out of that orange. And then I think some people were like, oh, this is kind of a bummer. I was somewhere in the in between. Um, I did when I usually when I used to go up there back in the early days, I've only missed two Alpines North. I missed the first one because I didn't know it was happening, because apparently I had a slow internet connection back in the day. And then I missed one when I was in Louisville three years ago. I've been to all the others, and I was talking to somebody over the weekend about how each year just kind of has a different feel, or there's something that happens that kind of gives it a flavor, and it's easy for me to kind of categorize it in my own history. This last one had a different feel to it, and I tried to do some of the things that I hadn't done in a while. So when I went up there on Friday, I made a beeline for Castle Danger Brewery up in two harbors, and I had not been there for at least four or five years, maybe six years. Maybe it was pre-COVID the last time I was there. But I it's such a cool brewery. If you're listening and you've never been up there, I strongly encourage you to give it a try. They're turning 15 years old on August 15th. We'll talk a little bit more about that later. They're one of the, when you think about Minnesota craft beer tap room breweries, they're one of the older ones. 15 years is pretty good. Yeah. 15 years is nothing to poo-poo at. So got there, if it's a very, it has a very northern feel. Yeah. Like, like wood on the ceiling. There's no exposed brick. There's no like it's not the industrial brewery look. It's just very like, you know, you're you're north. Yeah. North of north in Minnesota. They have built this really nice kind of wraparound deck, and they have these tables and they had a food truck. It's just nice. It's a very relaxed atmosphere. There's a very, you know, people were playing cribbage, people were playing board games. It's very laid back, and the flight I got was absolutely sensational. I got an American light lager, I got a Hellis Lager, I got a Maple Merzen Oktoberfest and a West Coast IPA, and they were all delicious. Then I got a 10-ounce pour of Castle Danger cream ale because you have to when in Castle when at Castle Danger, do uh do that. But it was really nice. And then there was a barbecue place in two harbors called Bobbecue that I didn't know about, but I was meeting uh Brie and her friend Jen and her coworker Josh up there because they had gone to hike at Gooseberry Falls. And so they're like, hey, we're picking up barbecue. Here's the link to the menu. Let us know if you want something. I saw burnt ends and I was like beep idi beep beep beep idi beep beep meet, meet, meet, meat sweats, meat sweats, meat sweats. So I'm like, yes, pick me up some burnt ends. Burnt ends are the delicious part of the meat that I love. And they were really tender, and they had a great barbecue sauce. It's very delicious. And that and they I had a jalapeno powder. Nice, very yummy. So Bob's barbecue or barbecue. I don't even know what it's called. Bob, Bob, Bob up and down in the water. Um, so that was yummy. That was good. Always good to get a little food in. Uh we hung out there for about an hour and then I headed to Duluth.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04But I hadn't done the Castle Danger trip in a while. It was really nice.
SPEAKER_00I've also not been there. I've passed by it on my way to Grand Bay, but I haven't actually stopped. But now I'm gonna need to, because I I also saw your video that you did of it, and it just it looked so cool.
SPEAKER_04I wish I had a I wish I had a flying car because it'd be nice to go up there for their anniversary party. But that weekend is chalk full of beer events, so I'm not sure. It is chalk full.
SPEAKER_00I don't think you could go up there anyway.
SPEAKER_04Golden birthday for Castle Danger Brewery.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04A really like they've been a very consistent fixture, and I would say I'm I'm guilty of kind of forgetting about them sometimes as being a quality place for event times where I've not put them in my list, not because I don't like them. Because I get Castle Danger Cream Ale or if I see the George Hunter stout on tap, I will order that. I order a lot of their beer. Sometimes it just I think about the Luth and my mind instantly goes to Urza Minor, Bent Paddle, Hoops back in the day, and then Earthrider. And I forget, oh yeah, I used to go to Castle Danger a lot. So my apologies to Castle Danger Brewery for sometimes leaving them off my favorite beer list.
SPEAKER_00They're on there the last couple years, but Castle Danger has saved me many a time at a northern Minnesota bar where I go in and their beer options are like Miller Light and Coors and that kind of stuff, and then they'll have their one craft beer option will be something from Castle Danger.
SPEAKER_04Probably the cream ale.
SPEAKER_00I don't even care what it is, that's what I'm getting.
SPEAKER_04I have been told, and this was a couple of years ago, so I don't don't quote me on this, but Castle Danger Cream Ale can go to toe-to-toe with the macros as far as tap handles and tap lines and bars.
SPEAKER_00I believe that.
SPEAKER_04Like they it does very well. I think it's got it, it's like their thoroughbred Bell Cow beer that I think keeps the lights on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Because they they sell a lot of it.
SPEAKER_00So and again, I think it's the only craft, one of the very few craft options at a lot of those northern Minnesota places, especially. Yeah. I mean, it's down, you can get it down here too. It's not exclusive to northern Minnesota, but yeah.
SPEAKER_04Where did now t tell me about your journey up there? Because you left you weren't coming from the cities.
SPEAKER_00No, I went up on Monday to Lake Vermilion.
SPEAKER_04That's right, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I I stayed up there and worked from the worked from the lake all week. And surprisingly, it turns out I am wildly more productive when I'm able to look out at a lake while I'm working.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I wonder how many other people would say that. Probably a lot. There's got to be something relaxing about it, just being in that mode. Was the weather was it hot up there? Yes. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It got it got a little stormy and not as nice on a couple days, but for the most part, it was it was sunny and hot and lovely.
SPEAKER_04Nice. No, I can't remember when you go up there, you go to a friend's place. Is it like a cabin? Is it fairly rustic or is it like a house and does it have like air conditioning?
SPEAKER_00It's a house with a cabin feel.
SPEAKER_04Oh, nice. I think that's the best of both worlds. It's gorgeous. It's cool.
SPEAKER_00It's the best. It's my place of Zen. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Excellent.
SPEAKER_00And they're they're so kind and gracious to have me go out there with them. And this time I stayed for a couple of days without them, and it was just really super nice.
SPEAKER_04That's awesome. So that was a what, a two-hour drive from Because what is Lake Vermillion an actual city or is it just a lake?
SPEAKER_00It's a really large lake.
SPEAKER_04Okay. What's the city? Like what's the case?
SPEAKER_00I think the closest city would be Tower. Okay. And Tower is like kind of on the way then to Ely.
SPEAKER_04Alright.
SPEAKER_00But I think Ely's still a a ways away.
SPEAKER_04Sure. Yeah. So you went right to Duluth.
SPEAKER_00You didn't do any okay from where I was, it was the same time-wise, it was the same time to get to Duluth versus going to Castle Danger to meet you. So I just went to Duluth.
SPEAKER_04That makes sense.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But it was kind of nice like driving in from the north side of Duluth. It was a whole it was a whole different geographical experience.
SPEAKER_04Where it's like the drive up to Duluth is just kind of kind of boring until you start to notice the like the topography change, and then you're like you kind of get excited. And I love when you come over that like little like loop and then you can see the harbor and you can see like that's a really cool feeling. And I'm gonna miss that.
SPEAKER_00We're gonna do a different Duluth trip. We're gonna have a Duluth beer case in because there's just too many breweries to go to that are all like in close proximity, easy to get to, and Duluth is so beautiful.
SPEAKER_04It is really nice. There's a lot to do there, and I feel like that's one of the challenges of All Pines weekend is there's so many things happening, and I have raging FOMO. So if I don't do something, I feel well, I should probably do that. So it was kind of hard. Uh this year I just made it a point to just be like, nope, I'm only going to do a fraction of the things. I'm gonna do quality over quantity. And that seemed like the right choice for me where my energy level was at. So I felt like it was a pretty good weekend overall. And then we met up at Bent Paddle on Friday night. Got there well right around 5 30 or so. Instantly saw quite a few folks. They have a Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild meeting that night. Yeah. And so people kind of gathered there and I was I saw a lot of people headed off to the the Bent Paddle or next not the Bent Paddle, the Urza Minor production facility to have their meeting. And then we chatted. Uh we met up with Bree and Jen and Josh, hung out on the patio. A lot of kids there.
SPEAKER_00There were an uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_04Too many too many rug rats running around, which, you know, that's that's Fine. It wasn't it wasn't on the amorphic level of insanity, but a lot of kids. They're pretty well behaved. Uh nobody was trying to express the glands of a of a random dog. Remember, we saw that at Amorphic. Well, what a what a time to be alive. Yeah. Um, but yeah, good beers. I think I had a venture pills, and then I had a 14-degree amber ale. Not technically uh amber ale form of ESV, but ESVs don't sell. But those are two two really good beers. Uh you had, didn't you have a sour? You had I had a sip of something that you drank.
SPEAKER_00I had the gandering goose goes. Did I say it right?
SPEAKER_04The G cubed, as they say.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but if you ask me now what the flavor profiles were, I don't remember.
SPEAKER_04Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00I'm really good at this dance.
SPEAKER_04Did it have gooseberries in it, maybe?
SPEAKER_00Oh, maybe. Oh, we're gonna be feathers. That one was good. After that, I had uh a lager that was uh the grapefruit light that I didn't care for that one as much.
SPEAKER_04Too much grapefruit or not enough?
SPEAKER_00Uh I don't I don't know. It just wasn't it wasn't my thing. Yeah. I think the the first one I really super enjoyed and it had a lot of like gold flavor in it. Yeah, I think that's a good one.
SPEAKER_04I thought there was a little bit of a dearth of multi-options. Obviously, they had the the black, the cold press black.
SPEAKER_00We have so many to pick from there. It's so hard.
SPEAKER_04And the amber was the only other real like dark beer.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04They didn't have much. I was hoping they would have that nitro stout.
SPEAKER_00Oh, we had such a good one there last year.
SPEAKER_04Oh man, that was so yummy. There's enough to choose from. I should have got a bent hop. I hadn't had a bent hop IP in a long time.
SPEAKER_00We have to go back, damn.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I know. And then it was into the Uber and over to Urza Minor for beer and eventually pizza. It's kind of a wait. It was a busy. There were a lot of people. The place was slammed. And you know, even though it's wood fire pizza and they come out fast when there's like a thousand orders, that can be tricky. Yeah. But I got the I did we both get the same. We both ended up getting the same pizza again. So it had sausage, pepperoni, hot honey, tomato sauce, and pesto.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_04It was very good.
SPEAKER_00It was so good.
SPEAKER_04I really liked it. Although my hands got real sticky from that hot honey. But that was good, and then people started to kind of f file in, spill in, pour in, maybe is the best uh apropos description of everybody coming from the guild meeting, and then it's just kind of off to the races for socializing. People were hanging out in the brewery area. I think they were getting free pizzas in there because they're special guild member folks. But I went in, I kept popping in there to say hi to people, and that was really fun.
SPEAKER_00I did have a really, really super good beer at Urza Minor.
SPEAKER_04What did you have?
SPEAKER_00It was the baby agate. It was a lactose sour with cherry, boysenberry, and vanilla, and it was on nitro.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah. Oh, that's right. I remember having a sip of that.
SPEAKER_00That beer made me so happy.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that beer.
SPEAKER_00And it was pretty.
SPEAKER_04It was very beautiful. It was almost not glittery, but very like. It was not a clear beer.
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_04Lots of stuff in there. It was very tart. Like it that first sip threw me for a loop. It was j- I will, I would say jarring.
SPEAKER_00Again, I think you did have quite a reaction with the five.
SPEAKER_04Not a bad beer, but like, whoa. It was just like. I was drinking an Italian pilsner. And those can be a lot from the hop perspective. There's a lot of hops in an Italian pilsner, but they're noble hops. They're not like super duper like piny bitter. They're a little grassy and floral. That sour that you had that, you know, was like smelling salts.
SPEAKER_00I can tell you, I think that was my favorite beer of the whole weekend.
SPEAKER_04Wow. Okay.
SPEAKER_00I will, I will, I will actually say that. That was my favorite beer of the whole weekend.
SPEAKER_04We've got a favorite beer of the weekend announcement. I did it. That's exciting.
SPEAKER_00I did it. Mark your calendars. The words came out of my mouth.
SPEAKER_04The year of our Lord 2027. Courtney's favorite beer was a sour that made me nearly pass out and lose consciousness.
SPEAKER_01Accurate.
SPEAKER_04Hear ye, hear ye. After the Italian Pilsner, it was on to the Curio West Coast Pilsner, which was a collaboration between Urza Minor and RARBSG.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_04They used Simcoe, Motwaka, and I cannot, for the life of me, remember the third hop that they had in there. It was really crisp, really good. I really like a West Coast Pilsner. It was delicious. And then I rounded things out with their Harbor. Not harbor freight, harbor something or other. It was a Kolsch.
SPEAKER_00I just I want everybody to know that I'm having to refer to notes and to my untapped to recall this beer situation. You're over here just like, oh yeah, I drank this, and then I drank that. And these were all the things in this.
SPEAKER_04I think it was just called Harbor Kolsch. My brain does not understand closer. Oh, it's just called Harbor Kolsch. Yeah. Urza Minor Harborkulsch. That was really tasty. I love a Kolsch. And then with the pizza and everything, a lot of socializing, a lot of really nice interactions. Yeah. It was every time I go there, I get not berated. I get friendly, I get a friendly ribbing from some of the folks at Urza Minor. They're like, when are you coming up to do a podcast? I'm like, well, every time I'm up there, it's Al Pines North weekend. Yeah. And that's not the time to do a podcast with one with the brewery that's usually quite heavily involved in all the festivities. So I will get up there at some point.
SPEAKER_00Duluth Beer Cation weekend.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, someday. Someday we will make it happen. And then it was off, like uh, you know, we're recording this at Wandering Leaf, and the Wandering Leaf crew was there, and they were all having a good time this weekend. They're uh Yeah, they have a lot of gusto for for for hanging out. And they went to the Rat Skeller. They were trying to get me to go to the Rat Skeller. I'm like, I don't know. And I was like contemplating it, and then I'm like, no, I need to call it a night because I want to be have a productive Saturday. And then I ordered an Uber and it was 43 freaking dollars. Oh my god. I'm like, wow, I could either go to a fancy steakhouse and get like an old 96er or get a ride to my place that was like 14 minutes away. This highway robbery. But I did it because I wanted to go to bed and I got a good night's sleep.
SPEAKER_00I'm shocked that you didn't go out because I remember last year when we were getting ready to leave Ursa Minor, I'm like, I'm I'm going back to the hotel. I'm tired, and you're like, no, drop me off at the Irish bar.
SPEAKER_04Well, and then yeah, so Matt went to the Rat Skeller with his crew, and then Bree and Jen were like, they went someplace else.
SPEAKER_00They're like, if you want to come here You had options, Dan, if you cast them all up.
SPEAKER_04But that was that was what I was saying. It's kind of like my battery has been draining real fast this summer. So I was like, nope, I'll just I'll just go home and get a get a good night's sleep. And I'm staying up with a I was staying up with a friend, uh former co-worker, and she has just like this really nice house up. It's kind of up north of the city, up close to where Lake Superior Brewing is, which I didn't go there, but Jen was talking that they have some pretty unique food offerings, so that's another place to go when we decide to head back up to the house. Yeah. And so uh went there. Then I got up leisurely Saturday, went to Uncle Louie's, which is it's uh it's not for everybody. It's a greasy spoon. How do you you do you like uh like an old school kind of diner, simple no-frills? That's where I went. I try to go every year. Some sometimes I go twice over the week. I go Saturday and Sunday.
SPEAKER_00But I need I need it to have old school diner aesthetic, not just old school diner greasy food.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I would say it has, I mean, it has a counter with little stools where you can sit, and that's where I usually sit because I don't want to wait for a table. So I did that. They have a lot of a lot of different things. Their menu, I am not joking. It's like it is the size of like a big ass coffee table. It's like a a Perkins menu on steroids. This thing is like, you know, something that uh Copernicus would would who's the no, not Copernicus. Who's the explorer? Not Galileo.
SPEAKER_00Magellan?
SPEAKER_04Magellan, yeah. Something Magellan would whip out of a thing and roll out on a table, and it'd be all. I mean, that their menu is extensive, but my go-tos are usually I love a good ham and cheese omelette. And so I got ham and cheese omelet with hash browns with a pancake. You can either get breakfast potatoes or hash browns, and then you can get toast, a muffin, or pancake. Their pancakes are the size of a city bus steering wheel, and I love them. They're so fluffy and good. And they have this wonderful, they give you like a pat of butter on that bad boy. That's like it's not out of a little thing. It's like like whipped butter. It's like so good. And if you sit at the right spot on the counter, you can see the chef. And I could sit there, watch that for hours. Orders come in, he's just putting the potatoes, like you know, on one side of the flat top, cracking eggs, doing his thing, whacking the spatula on the on the ding ding-ding ding. It's like uh ASMR heaven for and actually it's kind of funny because a couple years ago, after going there, my TikTok algorithm started showing me like a camera in a diner, and people would like and I just I could watch that forever. There's something so mesmerizing about somebody cracking eggs on a flat top, making perfectly fried eggs, sunny side up eggs, doing all sorts of stuff. So that was really fun.
SPEAKER_00I love watching other people cook. Yeah, I don't I don't cook well myself, so watching some of the things.
SPEAKER_04You must be a huge fan of Benny Hanna then, because you're right there front row. You're right there. Yes. So if you're ever up in Duluth, another good reason to go to Uncle Louis is they hire a lot of people who are coming out of treatment or have had like some tough life. Maybe they've spent time um incarcerated. They give people jobs, give them skills, and it's like a really nice it's a really nice thing. Also, on this uh prominently displayed behind the counter, there is a sign, and it's written on like just a legal pad paper taped up there. The current record for most pancakes eaten in a city is eight by some guy from like Knife River. It's it's kind of crazy. I don't know how you could eat eight of those things because they're ginormous.
SPEAKER_00I mean, pancakes are pretty easy to eat. You might not feel great about it later.
SPEAKER_04I don't know.
SPEAKER_00But if there's like some kind of contest for the prize for it, so if you know like they're this thick. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04This thick and fluffy. That's a lot of bread. It's a lot of filler. I'm gonna say what kind of prize is it just your name on the wall or is there a prize that goes? I don't know. I don't know if there's a prize.
SPEAKER_00Any details, Dan?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, maybe we'll do that on our dilute vacation. It's like, well, we both went into gluten shock and had to be resuscitated by Uncle Louie. Yeah, I've had we had some good meals up there over the years. It's a good spot. I'm also like, I'm not a huge brunch person. Like if you ask me to go to brunch and there's cocktails involved, and I that's not my that's not my vibe. So this is like, you know, I think I got there at 10. And there was no line this year, which was crazy, lucky, because usually there's a line wrapping out around the door. So it was it was good. Uncle Louis way to set a base for a nice day. When I went home or went back to the place I was staying, did a little writing, and then you I got a message from you.
SPEAKER_00I was so impatient.
SPEAKER_04I'm gonna read this to the to the to the listeners because they need to know how wacky you are.
SPEAKER_00Hey, listen, I did not wake up thinking I had pink eye this year. So my day was already a win.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's true. That I could go back and find that text. I'm at the clinic. I think I have whoa God, where did you go after Urza Minor? Hey. That was a little crazy.
SPEAKER_00I did I did go to bed on Friday night, like trying not to put my eye anywhere near the pillow or do anything weird because all I could think of was I'm gonna wake up in the morning and think I have pink eye again.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah, here it is. At 1.08 p.m. on Saturday. I'm too excited. I already started walking. I think we had planned to meet at like 1 45. Because it didn't really start until 3. But I guess we could have gotten I guess we could have gotten there at like 12 30 if we wanted to.
SPEAKER_00We could have.
SPEAKER_04But that's a lot. So we wound up getting there. I wound up getting there like just right around.
SPEAKER_00At the time we were supposed to. Yeah. Yeah. I got it.
SPEAKER_04I got I lost track. I was like trying to finish that. I have been working on that stupid frickin' favorite list. I started, I had to go back and change stuff because I had I started I wrote a third of it in like January and February, and then things got a little crazy, and then I I'm just like, well, I'll be able to get I'll be able to finish it over spring break. That didn't happen because we had so much fun in Milwaukee. And when I came back, there was family life stuff, and then I'm like, so I had to go back and change some things to like different tenses and whatnot. So that's okay though. But I was working on that, so then you're like, okay, unlike it.
SPEAKER_00Well, and I was just sitting in the hotel room and I kept looking at things on social media and seeing videos of people setting up, and I'm like, I can't take it anymore.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. So then we then we went there. We went there, got the little wristband, got the tasting glass, and so off to the races. Luckily, we found the wandering leaf. That's where you were. You were at the wandering leaf tent.
SPEAKER_00Well I was hanging out in the hospitality tent, and I thought I'm just gonna chill out in here, wait for you to get there. But then I saw Jen walk by, and so I'm like, oh, I got a follower.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And I came and met you there, and we started the festival off how.
SPEAKER_00The only way you should start a festival out with a hams.
SPEAKER_04With the wandering leaf crew. Hams. That's the best way to start off a festival. A nice cold, land of sky, blue waters. Luckily, we don't have to shotgun those anymore.
SPEAKER_00I'm very thankful I don't have to shotgun that anymore because that was not a good thing.
SPEAKER_04I remember the first couple times at a fest when Matt would whip out those hams and we'd shotgun those some bitches. And that was uh that's a rush.
SPEAKER_00I think the first time you guys told me it was a shotgunny thing, I I think there was maybe a look of horror on my face.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you you were not super duper.
SPEAKER_00I didn't sign up for this.
SPEAKER_04Excited about that. No. Yeah, so we we sipped them like the civilized upper crust of society. And then we had another hand because cable came over.
SPEAKER_00You had another hand. I was still working on my first hand.
SPEAKER_04One to refuse the salt and bread of hospitality of what I met at somebody else's house. Yeah, and then it was uh around. We, you know, walked over, I think the first was the first beer that we had from Little Thistle or was it from Spiral? Spiral. Okay. Spiral. Yeah. Now they had a prickly pear seltzer that I really liked.
SPEAKER_00I was trying to remember what um what was it?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Uh was it prickly pear and pomegranate, perhaps? Because it was darker. It was a beautiful thing. I guess I don't know what color prickly pear is. Maybe prickly pear is pink as well.
SPEAKER_00I think prickly pear is pink, but I think it's a light pink, and that was like a darker a darker color.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I don't think. I'm so sorry, Spiral, I failed you. That's uh I don't remember.
SPEAKER_00But that was it was a beer that they had brewed for uh a festival in Hastings, I think she said.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but it was good. And it wasn't a beer, it was a seltzer. That's why it was so noteworthy to me, because I'm usually I'm not a seltzer guy. But you know, pretty much anything they put out is of high quality and tastes delicious. Yeah, then we went over to Little Thistle. I had a microtonal. Did you have the was that when you got the ginger beetle?
SPEAKER_00I got it a little bit later than that, but that was also on my list of like really good beers that I had that day. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04One of their uh, not Audrey, but the other person working there had their awesome like soccer jersey.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And I'm like, yes.
SPEAKER_00And they were talking about the They had a lot of World Cup stuff going on with their black.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that sounded like a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_00That beer and ginger sour is another, I don't like beets.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Beer did I say beer and ginger? It's beet and ginger. Yeah. It's beet and ginger. That's another flavor. I don't like beets. But I've had their beet beer, and I've had here at Wandering Leaf, they had like the very first time I ever came here, they had a beet Saison.
SPEAKER_04That's right.
SPEAKER_00And that was also really delicious.
SPEAKER_04Now, was the do you know if that was was that med city beet or was that a different beet beer? Here? No, it the one that you had at Little Thistle. Uh because Little Thistle, they usually they typically have a beer called MedCity Beet, and I can't remember if that has ginger in it or not.
SPEAKER_00This one was very ginger forward, which is maybe why I like it so much because I love ginger.
SPEAKER_04That might be a specialty beer. And I had a sip of it. It was really bright. Was it? Yeah. Huh, that's crazy. I don't remember it being that ginger forward, but then again, I don't remember what I had for lunch yesterday. Oh, yes, I do. It was a cheeseburger at the Yanker Bar. Oh, yeah. I want to talk of land before time. Yeah, a couple dives up there in the Deleuze Superior area. Yeah, Med City Beat is great. And then I can't remember you you had a bold, you had a bold idea. You're like, I'm gonna document every single beer I drink this year. You said that in your in our intro reel. Yes. You put it out there. As the kids say, you tried to manifest it.
SPEAKER_00It didn't go well.
SPEAKER_04And then, you know, the training wheels came off. We just started having too much fun and too much socialization.
SPEAKER_00That's the problem.
SPEAKER_04I don't think Alpines North is the festival to try to document everything you drink because then you're gonna miss out on too much fun.
SPEAKER_00Well, and this time, like in the past, I've taken pictures of whatever I drank, but I don't know what beer it was. So this time I have a bunch of pictures of the signage outside each tent of what beers that they had, thinking I'll I'll remember when I see it which one of those beers I picked from that place. So now I have a bunch of beer signs and no beer pictures. I'm just a failure in a different way.
SPEAKER_04Well, no, it's fine. Oh, we went to Toplin Goliath after the after the little thistle. We did toppling Goliath and then we ran into Brie and Jen. And then we I think we went over to Jack Pine.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Because I know Brie also likes pickle beers.
SPEAKER_00I had a weird one at Topplin Goliath.
SPEAKER_04Did you get the turmoil one?
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_04Oh no, Brie, I think she got the turmoil one because I got the Oktoberfest. You get, did you get the apple pie fandango thing? It was the caramel apple fandango. You're like, do you want to try this? I'm like, no, I do not. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00It was another fruit and sour, because that was a few. I am of the upper crust.
SPEAKER_04I drink hams.
SPEAKER_00It was wild. It was very caramel apple-y. It felt very strange to drink.
SPEAKER_04For me, caramel apples are a fall thing. I can't do them out of the way. I don't even really like caramel. Really?
SPEAKER_00It's not like I'll I'll eat it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I'm gonna talk about caramel sauce later in the show.
SPEAKER_00I'm not taking a caramel. That's gonna be down on the list if there are no other options.
SPEAKER_04Okay. Yeah. So then it was after, and then I kind of lose track after that. I think after the Dead on Dill, we started walking.
SPEAKER_00So that was really good.
SPEAKER_04That beer's phenomenal. Well, you know, a lot of what Jack Pine brews is phenomenal. Yeah, and then I kind of start to lose track. No, no, no. We went over to try to get something from Fair State because I wanted to say hi to Megan and she wasn't there. Then we went to Rahr Eagle Brewery, which is the I want to, I'm glad we're gonna talk about this. Because last year at All Pines North, I think three of my five favorite beers from the festival were all from the RAR Eagle Brewery. It's the kind of RD pilot system for RAR BSG. For those of you who don't know, Raar BSG is down in Shokopee, Minnesota. They're one of the world's largest malt and grain processing plants ever. It is and any you can get a tour down there. I did a behind the scenes tour a couple of years ago, and it was fantastic. Just the size and scope and how how how much automation there is. They have these, if you think of if you look out here at the tap room and you imagine a big tank, just basically on the other side of this table that goes to that wall, down to the bar, down to the doors, that is all full. I don't know how deep it is, but it is full of grain, and it looks like that's where it's all like, I don't know what they do to it, but it's like, you know, when you get fancy mashed potatoes, yeah, that's what it looked like. You can go in the kilning room, which is like Asana, except that's where they're like baking the grain and it smells like bagels. And you're only in there for like 20 seconds because then you feel yourself starting to sweat profusely. It's really interesting. And then you get out of that whole thing and you realize holy crap, this is one of seven of these buildings. Oh my god, millions of tons of grain.
SPEAKER_00Where in Shakopee is this?
SPEAKER_04It's just down the road from like the downtown.
SPEAKER_00Oh.
SPEAKER_04So it's it's really cool. And then they have like their brewery, and you can get little things, little different beers. Some of their beers are like unmarked because they're like secret or experimental ones. Yeah. They also have root beer, which is really good.
SPEAKER_00I do love a good root beer.
SPEAKER_04I grabbed a root beer. Where did I grab a root beer? At some point this weekend I had a root beer.
SPEAKER_00You did.
SPEAKER_04It was a liftbridge root beer.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Where the hell was that? I don't know. Well, not important. But the Raar Eagle Brewery had a Hefeweizen, they had a Mexican lager, they had an American lager, and I believe they had a hoppy beer of some kind. They were all good.
SPEAKER_00It was Canadian Mexican.
SPEAKER_04Yes, that's right, because they used something or some kind of a why is it Canadian? Yeah. And maybe that's yeah, I don't know why. But they were all good. Those were delicious beers.
SPEAKER_00I was surprised you ever left their tent.
SPEAKER_04I didn't want to get uh forced to leave like last year. Security is not gentle at that event, but yeah, that was a that was a good one. Um, some of the other noteworthy beers for me were the Pacific Pith from Lupulin West Coast Pale Ale. And they had one of their many very Of barrel god. This one was a was uh barrel god in a rye buffalo trace barrel. So that was really yummy.
SPEAKER_00Didn't have the blissful orgasm from Lupalin.
SPEAKER_04I had a sip of yours. And it was funny. Right after I needed a cigarette and a nap. Yeah, that was um they've had some interesting beer names over the years.
SPEAKER_00They were making people order it. Yeah. Can I have a blissful orgasm? They were making them phrase it properly.
SPEAKER_04That's kind of funny.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You gotta keep yourself entertained all day.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's like a fruited version of Hui, right?
SPEAKER_00And it's just really bright and it was a hazy double IPA infused with mango, coconut, and vanilla.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah. Blissful, yeah, duh. Blissful ignorance. Okay. It was delicious. Yeah. And everybody else was like, I'll have what he's having. Sir? Are you okay? You look like you're overheating. Ice water. I need ice. Just throw me in the lake.
SPEAKER_03Throw me in the lake.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so many good beers. Lots of the band was really good. They always have good music at that thing. Sometimes, you know, you go to a brewery or a festival and the music sucks.
SPEAKER_00No, they were great.
SPEAKER_04But they had a they had they were really good. People were into it.
SPEAKER_00And I unfortunately I didn't get the I didn't get the name of the band. Did you get the name of the band?
SPEAKER_04Uh no.
SPEAKER_00Let me tell you, they were awesome.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, they were really good.
SPEAKER_00Sorry we don't know your name.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, they've had some good ones over the years. One year, a couple of years they had Viva Kanevel, which is a really good cover band.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04They're really awesome. Uh I know for their Autumn Brew Review, they get such talents as Grunge Unplugged.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_04That's right. They were there last year.
SPEAKER_00They didn't play, though.
SPEAKER_04Yes, they did.
SPEAKER_00They did? I saw Willard there. I didn't know they played.
SPEAKER_04Uh, that is shut up.
SPEAKER_00They did not.
SPEAKER_04They did.
SPEAKER_00Oh my god. This last year when I was there?
SPEAKER_04Yes. That's funny. That's hilarious.
SPEAKER_00Man, what the hell was I doing?
SPEAKER_04Well, I I don't know.
SPEAKER_00I remember none of that. I remember seeing Willard walking around and taking weird pictures over your shoulder of him. Like, oh hey, there he is. I don't remember them playing.
SPEAKER_04They were playing.
SPEAKER_00Are you sure?
SPEAKER_04I'm I'm almost 100% positive. If it wasn't this, if it wasn't last year, it was the year before. But I swear to God, it was last year.
SPEAKER_00I wasn't there two years ago, but I was there last year.
SPEAKER_04We'll have to we'll have to double check.
SPEAKER_00I don't remember that part of my head.
SPEAKER_04And then maybe we can get the definition of cojones. Because I still I'm not gonna let that go. Nobody seems to know. Somebody knows something.
SPEAKER_00Google now is.
SPEAKER_04I'm gonna follow the money. I'm gonna, this is gonna be like the all the president's men. The Watergate situation. I want to ask you, what did you think of the fact that there were a lot fewer breweries pouring beer? Okay, there Did you feel like it felt emptier?
SPEAKER_00I I don't know that it felt emptier. It felt like there were still a lot of people there. To me, it felt like from last year there were just as many, if not more, people wandering around. There it did feel like a lack of tents. It felt like the the brewery situation was noticeably smaller.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Lines were a little bit longer, but it didn't it didn't feel like a a small event. It didn't feel like less people, just less beer options.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I didn't mind that there weren't so many places pouring because I felt like after the first well, okay. This is this is a little skewed because we got in so early. Yeah. But by 5 p.m. I was pretty much done like having like seeking things out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And I guess I say that then I remember I did want to try I never did try the S'mores Explore Moore's beer that Ben Paddle did with the Girl Scouts of America.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I didn't get that one either.
SPEAKER_04And that was on tap. Now that I'm remembering, that was on tap on Friday night at the tap room. So earlier when I said that there weren't a ton of multi options, I guess that was one that I was overlooking earlier in the conversation. That's one I wanted to try, but I tried pretty much everything else. Yeah. The one thing that made me happy, well, there were a lot of things that made me happy. The weather was perfect. It was sunny.
SPEAKER_00The weather was amazing.
SPEAKER_04I got plenty of sun. That was really cool. There was a breeze. I did still go through the misting tent a couple times. Going to the hospitality tent was really cool because they had the Urza Minor bagels there. And I had a Parmesan bagel, and there were no I didn't see any knives to like saw through the bagels. So I just like ripped it open like I was an extra in uh Game of Thrones. Like, you know, just like a peasant person.
SPEAKER_05Oh, only some ale for me bread. Do you have a utensil? My bread now if it's in the other village. So I just like Robert Baratheon, that baby.
SPEAKER_04And uh I spread cream cheese on it. The cream cheese was in a bed of ice, so it was still. I was scared of the cream cheese, so I just skipped it. Delicious. What were we talking about right before that?
SPEAKER_00The number of breweries and people at APN.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_00And by like five o'clock, you were kind of done.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, by five o'clock I was done. There were a couple things that made me happy about it. One of which was to see a big, huge line at Dangerous Man.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_04Like that line stretched. That was like you got a nice video of it. And I was trying to count. There were over a hundred people in that line.
SPEAKER_00It was a ridiculous line. I mean, not like they sh absolutely should have been in that line though. Yeah. Because it was Dangerous Man and it was very exciting.
SPEAKER_04So that was cool. I guess my point was that I didn't feel the pressure to go around and try everything.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I felt like with that number of people. Oh no, I know what it was. We were talking about the cream cheese that I didn't get sick from because it was perfectly cooled. Those bagels were insanely good.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_04Really yummy. But that hospitality tent, I don't remember it being like that great in other years, but this was really good. It was really good. One year they had pasta, and watching people who are like drunk eat pasta, I I that was that's not appealing. The hospitality tent with the bagels was really good. But it was nice because I felt like we could we could have a much more leisurely pace and actually talk to people. I guess the the flip side of that and kind of like the bummer is a lot of the usual suspects that I usually wind up running into at a beer festival weren't there because their breweries weren't there. Yeah. So that was kind of a I'm not even gonna say a negative. It was just different. So it was a different kind of festival. But I felt like once it was done, I was just like socializing and just like going around and talking to people. Yeah. And I spent a lot of time at the Wandering Leaf tent. I spent a lot of time at the Waldman tent, spent a lot of time at the Lupulin tent. When I would go to the Lupulin tent, we had a triforce of dance.
SPEAKER_00There were a lot of dans. There were three dance.
SPEAKER_04Dan cubed. Dan in what's what's stereo stereo plus one. Is there a such a thing as a stereo that's three different things? Obviously, stereo is right and left. Is there stereo where there's a speaker above your head? That's what we had in dance. Three dance. Dan, that name is not very common. There's no such thing as too many dance.
SPEAKER_00There were too many dams.
SPEAKER_04No. Three? That could have been 90.
SPEAKER_00We should have started voting some of you off the aisle.
SPEAKER_04There used to be a store. Yikes. There used to be a store on Snelling called Dan's Fan City. That's a real thing. It was by Hamlin. Did you ever drive by it? Probably. That was that was a place to buy a fan from Dan. That was that was good. So it was it was nice. The social dynamic was nice. And then I was trying to get this grassroots after party thing happening.
SPEAKER_00You were working really hard, Dan.
SPEAKER_04There was, and I talked to uh Nate Schneider, the president of the board of the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild. And I'm like, what's the after party? He's like, I don't know. Some I like some people are saying Ben Paddle, some people are saying Rat Skiller. I'm like, Rat Skiller. Let's do the Rat Skiller. So we started getting that. And then when I was talking to Jeff Ziert at Lupulin, he's like, So you're organizing the after party? I said, I'm not organizing it. I just like I'm trying to get this like grassroots movement for ratskiller because I think it's a really cool place to drink.
SPEAKER_00Word spread fast.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, word spread fast. And uh a lot of people seemed like that was a good idea.
SPEAKER_00And every time I heard you guys say the name, I thought you were saying rat cellar.
SPEAKER_04The rat cellar.
SPEAKER_00So I was yeah, I was thinking like a basement infested with rats.
SPEAKER_04I mean it very well might have been infested with rats, who knows? But it was too dark to see. So but then yeah, the fest wound down and I had some sadness during the day.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. There was some definite sadness. Oh gosh, that sounded so heavy. It was sorry.
SPEAKER_04Easy, easy now.
SPEAKER_00It was only my second APN, so I don't have a history with it like you do. But it was it was kind of sad all day long looking around at how scenic and beautiful that park is with all the beer tens up, all the people walking around, the lake is right there, that big bridge is out in the background. It's just this gorgeous area to have a beer festival, and it won't be there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, as far as uh a venue, I don't think it gets better than it's a good idea. It doesn't get better than that. So, but that just added.
SPEAKER_00Even, I mean, autumn brewery view here on Boom Island in Minneapolis, also very scenic, but not as scenic as that park in Village.
SPEAKER_04No. Well, Lake Superior is just beautiful.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And so when you're right next to Lake Superior, you don't get the same vibe from the Mississippi River.
SPEAKER_00No, not quite.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. When I saw uh Bob driving around on the golf cart, giving people like the six minutes till like last call, I was like, oh that's kind of a bummer. And yeah, there's just gonna be there, there's gonna be some changes with the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild. Jess Tally is uh moving on from her role as kind of like the director, and it's gonna be different. I know that there's uh there's quite a few board seats that are gonna be up for re-election. So not all of the folks who are on the board currently are going to be running again. So there's gonna be some changes. There's a lot of change in the craft beer industry. But you know, the one thing, the one constant with the beer festival is like it doesn't matter where you put it, it's the people.
SPEAKER_00It's the people that make it.
SPEAKER_04It's the people that make it. So there's still like no matter where they go, you know, obviously it's gonna be in Bemidji next year. We're gonna talk about that. You know, if Bemidji is a one and done thing and they go somewhere else, you know, it'll it'll go somewhere else. Who knows? You know, as long as the people show up and have a good time, I think it will continue to be a fun thing to look forward to in the summer. But you know, the after party was kind was kind of was a good time. We kind of hitched our our wagon to the star of uh Mitch and Dan. Uh Dan went to UMD, he's a big hockey guy. Yeah, he and he and Mitch go way back. Mitch works at Summit Brewing, and he I love hanging out with Mitch. Mitch is a he's a great talker. Yeah, he's got great stories, he's a good storyteller. And and those two chaps are headed to Milwaukee next weekend. Yes. I was giving them some pointers. They're very excited. I think they're gonna go see the twins play because the twins are playing in Milwaukee next weekend.
SPEAKER_00I want to compare Milwaukee beer stories with them when they get back.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that would be fun. But it's just Mitch is he's very into scotch, so he I think the first scotch he got was was like a liquid charcoal briquette. And uh I was like, oh god. And I got a pour of a single barrel $17.92. That was real nice.
SPEAKER_00Are we talking about what I ordered?
SPEAKER_04Oh god, yeah. Well, okay, here's the problem. I okay, you got a liquid uh abomination of diacetol.
SPEAKER_00On the menu, it was supposed to be an apricot wheat from Fitgers.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_00And they said Which is a very good beer. The apricot's out, it's a pineapple wheat. Do you want that? And I said, sure, fine, whatever. I like pineapple. I don't know, I don't know what happened to that beer. Something something traumatized that beer at some point, and it was it was bad.
SPEAKER_04It was what a lot of people call a butter bomb. It had tons of diastyl, which diastyl is an off flavor that can that forms in beer and it tastes and smells, it tastes buttery, and it smells like butterscotch or movie theater butter popcorn topping.
SPEAKER_00If you're thinking to yourself, hey, I like butterscotch, that's not so bad. Or hey, I like movie theater butter popcorn, it's not so bad. No, no, no, no, no, no. It was terrible.
SPEAKER_04And it's so interesting because I I don't know why they were serving that beer.
SPEAKER_00Well, so we passed the beer got passed around the table with people smelling it and taking it.
SPEAKER_04I mean, Brie was there, Mitch was there, Elle was there, they all know the flavors. Yes, yeah. And so, like, their palettes are laser focused. They've worked in the industry a long, long, long, long, long time.
SPEAKER_00Elle really wanted to say something to the server, and I was like, don't, I'm not gonna worry about it. This is my sign that I shouldn't be drinking anymore tonight. I'm I'm fine with what's happening. And after she left, we did end up saying something to the server. Yeah. And he he really blew it off.
SPEAKER_04No, he was that server was kind of a moron.
SPEAKER_00He's like, you know what? I don't really like Fitger's beers anyway, so it's fine. Which uh no.
SPEAKER_04Don't don't cover up your stupid with more stupid by saying you don't like Fitger's. Fitger's is iconic. Just own up to the fact that you probably don't clean your beer lines very often. Yeah. And like there's that that beer should not have been poured.
SPEAKER_00Um and you should not continue pouring it for other people because it's terrible. Right.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And yes, the beer was flawed, but like, I don't know. Like, that should not. There are so many things that should have prevented that beer from even being out in the world.
SPEAKER_00He did not leave the table with any kind of action plan for finding out if there's actually something wrong with the beer. He's gonna keep serving it.
SPEAKER_04I don't know. Like, so I should have known because when I talked to Matt earlier, uh, I asked him, how was Drat Skelly? He's like, service was so slow and so like not poor, but he's like, We just got one drink because it was taking forever. And I get it, maybe they were a little short that weekend, but do something.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Like you shouldn't have to wait. When somebody says this beer is flawed that you poured me, it's gross. There's an off-flavor, there's an obvious off-flavor. The place should be like, Oh, do you want something else? Let me take that off your bill. Like, you should not have paid for that. I don't even care if they'd taken it off my bill, but it's like the beer. He was not worried about it. No, he didn't he didn't give a shit.
SPEAKER_00To just walk away and chalk it up and be like, Well, I don't like their beer anyway.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, it was kind of interesting. When I ordered, so I my that's kind of the reason I ordered bourbon, because I'm like, I doubt there's much happening here with the beer. So I ordered bourbon. You can't really fuck that up. Had that, and then I had a Negroni after that, and that was delightful.
SPEAKER_00Their cocktails looked really good.
SPEAKER_04Their cocktails were were yummy.
SPEAKER_00I just didn't want to do I didn't want to do beer and then go to cocktails because I know like I'm not gonna feel good later.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, liquor before beer, you're in the clear, beer before liquor, never been sicker.
SPEAKER_00It's fact.
SPEAKER_04That's a good and I feel like at that point I was just kind of full from beer.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So I just wanted something a little bit lighter, not so heavy. And then you you were you were fading.
SPEAKER_00I was fading fast. People were talking to me, and I was trying to keep my eyes open, and I'm like, I'm just gonna curl up and sleep in this chair. Yeah. It's gonna be on that's my night.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so you uh you headed back to the hotel.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_04And then when uh after you left, people started showing up. Like the Lupulin crew showed up. Because I think a lot of people, I guess I was so gung ho for a cocktail, I didn't think about oh, maybe I should stop and get some food along the way.
SPEAKER_00Everybody else went to get food.
SPEAKER_04Everybody else went to go get food because we were like the only people, like, where is everybody? And then eventually, like the Lupulin folk showed up, the wandering leaf folks showed up, like more people came in, like you know, Nate and Bob and Lindsay and Jess and all sorts of people. And it was like Matt came up to the table and he's like, looked visibly shaken. He's like, Where's Courtney? It's like we I'm like, oh, she went back to the hotel. She was tired. He's like, Oh, that's weird. I don't think, and you know, there's some there's sometimes you you associate people as like a group. Yeah. So I think he associates us as a as a duo, because when we come here, oftentimes we're together. Yes. You know, so that was kind of funny. And then Jeff from Lupulin is like, where's Courtney? And I'm like, oh, she went back. Yeah, she was she was tired. She I could tell she was tired. Just old. Well, you know, we're the same age, and I was uh still uh I was uh I felt like I was on borrowed time because I beat the diarrhea lettuce in Cleveland, so everything else I do this summer is gonna be just like icing on the cake.
SPEAKER_01Bonus.
SPEAKER_04Uh so hung out, got a eventually the dangerous man crew came and started talking with them, and that was really fun. And then I was like, Yep, I'm tired because I was talking with Sanoon, and at the festival, Sanun and I, she's like, let's talk sandwiches. What's your let's play this game? What's your favorite? So she would do this sandwich association. Oh my god. What do you like better? And eventually she's like, Bon me. I'm like, yes, bon me. So she's like, what do you like? Better bon me or a croque monsoon? I'm like, well, I've never had a croque monsoon, but bon me. She's like, bon me or ham and swish, bon me. Bon me or Ruben. I'm like, uh, that's a toss-up, but I still gotta go bon me. And then we like separated at the festival, and then I'm at the Rat Skeller sipping on my Negroni, very hungry. She's like, How do you feel about short ribs? I'm like, please stop talking about food. I can't get any of that here. Because that was the one flaw in the plan of the after party at Rat Skeller, and Jeff was giving me crap. He's like, Well, why'd you pick an after party with no food? I'm like, I didn't pick, I just said it would be good. We could go there. He's like, they don't have pizzas or anything. I'm like, I don't know what they have. I just know that they have bourbon and I want bourbon.
SPEAKER_00I was like, I decided you were the party planner for this thing, Dan.
SPEAKER_04He's like, well, Dan organized this, but he did he took us to a place where there was no food. I was like, come on, man. So what do I have for food back at the place I'm staying? I'm like, had a couple breakfast bars, and then I had some like still pickle cashews from Aldi. So I had those, but I was like, oh, I was so hungry. I was contemplating go over going over to Pizza Luce because I know they're open till one. But I'm like, I just also want to just go to bed. Yeah. And then that was the end of my all pints. Getting in a lift. And the lift driver was talking about Thai food. I'm like, I can't win. I can't like food everywhere except in my belly. Oh my gosh. And then the next day, got up, hung out on the deck, watched the birds at the bird feeder where I was staying. I was like two feet away from a hummingbird. That was pretty cool. And then I was like, oh god, it's like 11 30. I gotta I gotta there's a rest of the world happening out there.
SPEAKER_00So I was up in Adam before you.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I went to I went to a store. Um there was a there was a vendor that we went and checked out at APN. And I really liked their booth, I really liked their stuff, but I wasn't gonna buy anything there that I had to carry around because that seemed like a really horri horrible idea.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, but it was Free Air Life Company.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00So I went over to their actual store and was was there right at a later.
SPEAKER_04And did you get like a like a what was that thing that you got? It was like a long sleeve.
SPEAKER_00It's it's this sweatshirt that I wore yesterday and I'm wearing again today.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it looks super comfy. Is it I love it? Boysenberry or Periwinkle? No.
SPEAKER_00It's not periwinkle, but Boysenberry would be good. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Plum Boysenberry Plum, yeah. Nice color. Purplish.
SPEAKER_00And I guess I got some other stuff there. It was a really, really cute store.
SPEAKER_03Okay, cool.
SPEAKER_00But I check out the vendors at these beer festivals because there's some good stuff. And go support them at their actual store.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, do that.
SPEAKER_00They were even they were unpacking when I when I came in, the the girl apologized. She's like, I'm sorry, we were at this thing yesterday, and I'm unpacking all the stuff that they took to it. And I said, Hey, I was at that thing yesterday.
SPEAKER_04Nice. So it was I wonder how many other people came and discovered them.
SPEAKER_00That had also been at APN. That made me really happy.
SPEAKER_04I always wonder about the vendors at those places. I'm like, okay, so do they get much business from that? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00They were giving out um 20% off coupons. Oh, nice. So that is kind of a bonus for going and you could use it online or at their actual store.
SPEAKER_04Oh, that's cool. That was nice. Yeah. Well then we had some other stuff there.
SPEAKER_00It was really cool.
SPEAKER_04As is like the thing I like to do before I hit the road is head over to Superior. Yes. And we met at the Cedar Lounge for some well, I had some cold beer and some hot cheese turds.
SPEAKER_00The best combination ever.
SPEAKER_04I don't know. I guess I didn't. Last year when we talked about this, I was moving a lot slower last year on the Sunday.
SPEAKER_00You you were you were rough when you walked in there.
SPEAKER_04You just remember what the hell did we do after the festival last year that I Oh, that's right.
SPEAKER_00We went to the place with no air conditioning.
SPEAKER_04Jesus Christ, yes. The Emerald Lounge, where you almost lost an eye to a pineapple frond. Yep. We did that, and then we went back to the hotel.
SPEAKER_00There was swimming at the hotel.
SPEAKER_04Swimming at the hotel. That's right. We went to Hoops.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04That's where the okay. Because I'm like, where did we eat? Oh, we had pizza at Hoops.
SPEAKER_00Because that after party had food.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah, and I got a really cool free shirt there from like Hopsteiner.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I love that shirt. It's so soft. It's like rare to find a like a free shirt that's actually like a really good shirt. Yeah. So this, yeah, so I think we had way too much after the festival. For you youngsters out there, it probably wouldn't wouldn't hinder you, but old old man Boby, and it's not the spring chicken he used to be. So yeah, bright-eyed bushy-tailed this year.
SPEAKER_00You had a better look upon your face.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, well, it's yeah, I was actually like excited about drinking beer. So I had a couple half pours of their I I think I had their Royal Bohemian Pilsner and their Hellas. And then I I saw that they had food and they had cocktails. And I think Josh got a margarita and I had a sip of it. Holy cats. It might have been the best margarita I've ever tasted. Which I believe that was like fresh squeezed juice in there. Yeah. It was very bright, very yummy. Okay, how good are these cheese curds gonna be? But they were delicious, they were like really good. And they had cocktails, they had bloody. Mary's, I saw an old fashioned on there. I saw that they had black frost weeded bourbon. Oh the distillery from New Ulm where I went last summer. So I'm like, oh wow, this is really good. But I was like, okay, got a two-hour drive ahead of me. Gotta stop at a couple half pores. They all went, so we met Brie, Jen, and Josh at Earthrider, and they had come from the anchor bar. Yes.
SPEAKER_00And then also the broken clock crew came over. That's right.
SPEAKER_04Yep. We were just a bunch of ships passing the night that day. And then I'm like, well, anchor bar time if you want to come with.
SPEAKER_00You didn't go check the vendors out outside at Earthrider. Earthrider had a little thing outside there. There's a bunch of vendors there too. And there was a a band who looked like it was a bunch of very young high school kids playing in this band. Oh cool. But they did have live music going on outside and some nice vendors. Okay. There was a guy who makes bags, like crossbody bags, and some stuff that you could attach to your bike.
SPEAKER_04Oh, sweet. Damn, I should have looked.
SPEAKER_00You should well, I did, I did grab that guy's card because I really liked his stuff. I just again didn't want to buy anything right there. But it was is called Romp. Rad Outdoor Multipurpose Bags. He was super nice, and his stuff looked like really good and durable and it was colorful.
SPEAKER_04Okay. Just put a link in the show notes. Do we have show notes? I never I hear a lot of podcasters say, I'll put a link in the show. I don't do show notes.
SPEAKER_00I do show notes. Okay. I do show notes. What I don't typically do is put chapters in for where you can like jump ahead to different parts that you want to listen to. So sorry, listeners.
SPEAKER_04Sorry, folks. And then it was over to the anchor bar. We sat at the there was some sorcery happening at the anchor bar. They have these magnetic pint glasses.
SPEAKER_00I was freaking out.
SPEAKER_04Where, and I've seen them on the show Bar Rescue, but you put it there and you press a button and the beer fills from the bottom.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And I was like, this is so crazy.
SPEAKER_00You were sitting there talking to the bartender, and all I'm doing is like watching this glass fill up from the bottom. I'm like, damn, dan, dan, dan.
SPEAKER_04Courtney, you look as though you've seen a ghost.
SPEAKER_00What is going on here? Am I like, am I really just like messed up? What have I seen?
SPEAKER_04Did you get some diarrhea lettuce? What's going on? Your eyes are glazed over.
SPEAKER_00Is this for real?
SPEAKER_01Is this happening?
SPEAKER_04So we each wound up getting cheeseburgers because they were out of ham, because I wanted to get a ham and cheeseburger. Oh, what I really wanted? This is what I really wanted. But I can't, but I don't do this type of thing in mixed company.
SPEAKER_00Oh no.
SPEAKER_04I wanted a the two-thirds, not the galley buster, but there's one that has like bacon and barbecue sauce. Oh. But it's like too much. It's it's too much.
SPEAKER_00You should have gotten it.
SPEAKER_04No, I should not have.
SPEAKER_00I'm disappointed in you.
SPEAKER_04They would have, well, would have had to drag me out of there. Their burgers are good. Not fancy smash burgers, but very quintessential Wisconsin dive.
SPEAKER_00They weren't greasy. I really like a big pile of grease.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it was it was good. It's good stuff. I was a little annoyed, and this is not their fault. This is a me thing. I wanted a fountain soda. And I wanted Coke.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So I asked for a Coke. Normally, if you ask for Coke and you have fountain soda, if you know that thing is not on soda, I would a lot of people say, We have that in a can. Is that all right? I think that's happened to me there before, and I've said, Oh, yeah, I'll get Pepsi instead. Because I just want, like, sometimes you just want to carbon. I just want a fountain soda. Yeah. So I got a Coke. That's fine. Everything else is great. I love their fries. They are cash only. That's the one thing. People need to know. Cash only. Matt Kennan ran into a little bit of a problem. He forgot it was cash only. I think that happens a lot. That's happened to me before. Luckily, I had cash. So we were all good. I did not have cash.
SPEAKER_00I never have cash.
SPEAKER_04And I just had plenty of cash just in case. Because I know like sometimes people don't know going in. You gotta have a gotta have a backup plan.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for my lunch at Anchor Bar, Dan. No problema.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And I love all the kitschy stuff. It's it almost feels like you're in the hull of a boat.
SPEAKER_00It does.
SPEAKER_04When you're sitting at the bar. That was really cool. Surly bartenders. The one guy did not want to make conversation. The the lady was nice. I'm like, how are you doing that? She's like, with my mind. I'm like, I knew you were a Jedi.
SPEAKER_03He was the best answer.
SPEAKER_04Chuckled at that. But that was good. Perfect base. Didn't overdo it by getting two two one-third patties on my burger. So then the drive home was fairly uneventful. And then All Pints North is over. Which brings me to the next point. Where it's going to be next year. I thought was fascinating. I was asking a lot of people what their thoughts were on the venue change. If you haven't heard, the 2027 All Pints North is going to be happening on July 31st in Bemidji, Minnesota. Land of Paul Bunyan. I believe it's at Paul Bunyan Park in Bemidji. What are your thoughts on that? I don't think we've talked about this. Have we talked about this yet?
SPEAKER_00I mean, a little. I don't know that I have really great feelings about Bemidji. I think I've only been there once and it was for a wedding. Maybe I just don't know enough about Bemidji. Maybe there's a lot of really cool things there that I'm just unaware of, and I should be doing some research on that city and finding other ways to entertain myself. I just feel like if I'm looking at Bemidji and I'm looking at Duluth, Duluth has so much going on. So you can go there for a festival, but you can make a weekend out of it. And you can go hiking, you can go to all kinds of different restaurants and coffee shops. And there's just there's a lot of stuff happening in Duluth that's really fun and really cool, and it's a destination to go to. I don't personally get that same vibe from Bemidji. And again, maybe it's because I haven't spent a lot of time there and I just am unaware of these things.
SPEAKER_04I think it's in talking to people, there's kind of two camps. The one camp that's excited because it's going to be a new experience. There's a lot more camping options that are closer to the festival, and it's an opportunity to kind of turn it into like a camping party. Yeah. Like the after party will be at the campground in the campsites. I can see the appeal of that. The other camp is kind of uh along the lines of what you just said. Is there enough existing infrastructure, both when you think about lodging, and you think about places to eat, places to drink? Yeah. Obviously, they have the nature thing. It's a big lake, probably hiking. Yeah. You know, uh, I'm sure there's biking, swimming, all that stuff. But is it going to be enough of a draw? Because it's pushing it further away. It's three and a half hours from the Twin Cities. So if you're forager, if you're a little thistle, if you're shells, are you gonna make that trip? That's a long trip. But let's think about this. The number one reason why they wanted to change the venue was cost. Yeah. We've watched the number of breweries go from just a shade under 120 down to almost under 50 this year.
SPEAKER_00I thought it was under 50 this year.
SPEAKER_04So that's a significant drop. People are already feeling the financial pinch because lodging in Duluth is insane. I've been looking at Airbnbs and hotels. Hotels definitely cheaper. Yeah. Not as many Airbnb options because I think if people are going up there to get an Airbnb, they're staying for like a whole week. So it's more of like a it's not a one or two night thing. There's not a ton of hotels.
SPEAKER_00There's more than I thought there were going to be a lot of people.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, somebody said there's only two hotels, and I'm like, okay, there's more than two. Yeah. But I know one of the ones we were looking at was like more of a boutique hotel, and it only had like a handful of rooms. Yeah. So it's gonna be interesting to see about that. I think the further distance, I don't know if that's enough of a draw to get those breweries who have stopped going to Duluth because it's expensive and maybe they don't distribute up there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Is that enough of a draw to go even further? Knowing that how many people are gonna make the trek? Now, I've also heard that, you know, back when All Pints started, it wasn't this big, huge thing. It took some years to build. Yeah. I mean, they did it for 14 years. So I think that's the folks who are optimistic think that we can build this, we can turn this into kind of like uh like All Pints North slash beer camping trip. Yeah. And really the festival is just a side thing. Whereas Duluth is its own animal, there's enough things that are established to do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04It's almost too much. So I don't know. I'm I'm gonna go.
SPEAKER_00I'm for sure gonna go.
SPEAKER_04I mean, I'm not gonna not go, but I've talked to a lot of people like, oh no, that's a no. It's too far. I don't wanna I don't wanna do that. I've talked to breweries who are like, it's putting it further away is not helping. That's not a draw. They think that's going to have a very negative effect on the are these the same breweries though that were complaining about the prices in Duluth?
SPEAKER_00Because it is a huge cost to the breweries to be there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I and I get that and I can sympathize with that. But are those the same people that are now complaining like you switched the venue to make it cheaper for us, but I just don't want to go.
SPEAKER_04Well, they I think their their point is like you switch the venue to make it cheaper, and yes, the hotels are a little cheaper, but it's further away, that's more gas and time and it's an hour further. Yeah. So I don't know. I think I hope that when I was on the phone with one hotel today when I asked them, because I I wasn't able to book a room yet because they they don't have them open. And I'm like, when you open them up, are they going to be the same price that it's listed? Because are they gonna hear, like, oh, in Duluth, they just jack up the price and make it, you know, like what's eventually I think it's going to get more expensive. Just because when a place knows that people are coming, now I did not know that Bayfront takes a cut, a pretty significant cut of every ticket sold. Ooh. So I think that for the from the guild standpoint, even if they don't get a ton of tickets, yeah, I think the cost of the venue is gonna be cheaper, and there must be some type of situation with the tickets that they get to keep more. Where they get to keep more. Because these are at the end of the day, fundraisers for the guild.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So I don't know. We'll see. I'm hopeful that it'll be cool.
SPEAKER_00I'm trying to be hopeful. It I'm still gonna go, it's still gonna be a good time. And like even Matt here at Wandering Leaf, I I feel like he's pretty excited about it. He's he's pretty stoked about it, and he wants to put together, you know, the pre-party and an after party, and he wants this to be a big deal. So I think it's a good thing.
SPEAKER_04I also hope he goes for one of those uh board depositions. I hope so too. Because I think he's got a lot of good ideas.
SPEAKER_00But I think with people like Matt being excited about it and wanting those things to happen, they will happen and it's gonna be it's gonna be what people make it. I just want to have I if anybody out there has a lot of information about Bemidji, I want places to go that are fun to eat, that are like Bemidji specific, you can't.
SPEAKER_04I mean, I know it's a college town, so they've gotta have some cool bars.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I want to hear about your cool bars and your cool coffee shops and good places to go and hike and other things to do in that area. That would be fun for the weekend.
SPEAKER_04I need to know the Bemidji equivalent of Uncle Louis. Where's the where can I go to get pancakes besides from Nebraska? Yeah. That's what I need.
SPEAKER_00These are all important questions. So maybe I need to do some Bemidji research.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That'll get me excited about it.
SPEAKER_04But it was I I felt we gave Duluth proper send-off.
SPEAKER_00Yes. For it could not have been eight more beautiful weekends.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it was really nice. They're just just that day. That's what everybody kept saying. This is this is great. Yeah. Because it's been it's been the most recent years have been pretty hot. And I've been up there when it's rained, it's been overcast. I'm like, this was this was probably as good of a weather as you could hope for. So that's the very Minnesotan thing. You know, we have to talk about the weather.
SPEAKER_00Maybe Bemidji won't jack up their hotel rates because I feel like in Duluth they can charge whatever they want because it doesn't matter if that festival is happening. Right. Other people are going to take those routes.
SPEAKER_04And I think that's why hotels are like, no, we're not going to give you a rate. Yeah. We're going to be full regardless.
SPEAKER_00So let's just all cross our fingers that Bemidji needs us there more than Duluth does.
SPEAKER_04And I want to make sure that we thank the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild for giving us press passes. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_04Because that's always a really nice thing to be able to do, to get to go talk to people and kind of like try things before the the hordes of people show up and their pretzel necklaces. Did you get any pretzel necklace pictures this time?
SPEAKER_00No, I was scouting them out and see that many. Oh, there were there were plenty.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_00And there were some there were some good outfits happening.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I saw one big gaggle of people that had like jerseys.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Like green, greenish jerseys. They were all dancing together at one point. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was pretty fun. You got some video of that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Well, another, you know, bookending the 14 years, putting a putting a wrapping a putting a nice little bow on uh the do the Luth chapter of all pints. Yeah. Um and yeah, Bemidji next year.
SPEAKER_00Anything could happen.
SPEAKER_04Anything could happen. A moose could emerge from Lake Bemidji. We could ride it off into the sunset.
SPEAKER_00Maybe I'm gonna go to Bemidji and fall in love with that city and be like, this is the best place ever.
SPEAKER_04I'm living here now.
SPEAKER_00I don't know about that. Let's let's not go too far.
SPEAKER_04Hold on, let's not, let's not put the cart before the proverbial horse.
SPEAKER_00Damn, there's other fun things coming up.
SPEAKER_04There are. A lot of it happening on August 15th.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's gonna be a rough day.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Well, I mean, it's definitely and it's also kind of stuff spread out throughout the state. So I already mentioned that Castle Danger Brewery is having their 15th anniversary party that weekend on the 15th. Steeltoe. Also at St. Louis Park is also turning 15. They're a, you know, if you want quality beer, go to Steeltoe.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04That's simple as that. Uh there's going to be an Octoberfest at Insight. It's going to be interesting. This year they've done some collaboration beers with Waldman.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_04So they're going to have some really great things on tap to drink there. We went last year. Yeah. I want to say, was it the middle of August? Was it that week? Okay. Because I remember getting a pretzel there and they had some decorations. And I remember they had the brass band from Gualm that came up in a bus and they were doing songs.
SPEAKER_00There were like a million people in that band.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that was a lot. So that was fun. Also, that day was really hot. So I'm hoping that we get some nice weather because it's very difficult for me to drink Oktoberfest and eat a bratwurst when it's really, really hot.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I'll do it. Don't get me wrong. I'll do it.
SPEAKER_00I have to.
SPEAKER_04But you know, not all heroes wear capes. So that's happening. And then I'm going to be participating in a fun little event down at Gizenbroy Beer Company in New Prague, Minnesota, on the 15th. It is called the Gizenbroy Brew Prague. It is a Pilsner competition. There's 12 breweries participating. Some of the proceeds are going to go to benefit the Peace Center food shelf. If you know anything about Gizenbroy, you know that they brew really good beer. And when they get some of their friends together, like Boathouse Brothers Brewing, Shacopee Brew Hall, Mana Brewing, Trove Brewing, Lakeville Brewing. Who else is going to be there?
SPEAKER_00You had a whole I rattled off the list before.
SPEAKER_04Brew d'etat, ineffable. And a few. I know I'm missing one or two. It's a lot. Oh, Montgomery brewing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So we're talking some some heavy hitters, breweries that know how to brew a pilsner. They asked me if I'd be willing to judge the competition. I don't know what that entails, but I do know my way around a pilsner, so that should be pretty fun.
SPEAKER_00Do you have an appropriate beer-judging costume?
SPEAKER_04I'm going to dress as one of those uh British people with the wigs.
SPEAKER_00Nice. Are you going to have a monocle?
SPEAKER_04You need a monocle. I mean, I'll try to do that. I'll probably just wear regular clothes because it's probably going to be hotter than balls.
SPEAKER_00You can't know.
SPEAKER_04Maybe I'll dress as Judge Wappner.
SPEAKER_00You could try to do that.
SPEAKER_04Or maybe it'll be a real stretch. I don't know. What other who uh what are some other famous judges? Judge Dredd?
SPEAKER_00Judge Dredd, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I could do that. Oh. Did you watch the show Benson growing up with Robert D.M. Yeah. Um, yeah, I don't know. Maybe I'll just go as Aaron Judge from the Yankees. Because uh, you know, if if they don't like the verdict, I might need to be wearing a nut cup if the audience gets a little uh a little crazy. So if you're not doing anything on August 15th and you want to take a little little road trip south, come see me down at uh Brew Prague event at Gizenbroy Beer Company in New Pray. So well, yeah, that 15th is jam-packed. There'd be a lot of stuff happening on there. And we're just kind of like the precipice of I mean, if you've been in a liquor store basically at all in July, you've seen Oktoberfest coming up. Yeah. So we're right, we're right at the uh Oktoberfest season is coming.
SPEAKER_00And if you're thinking, I don't want to buy that yet because I don't feel like it's Oktoberfest time yet, yeah, you're gonna probably be sad when you're ready for it and it's no longer available.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you gotta unfortunately with seasonal creep, you have to buy early and then just let it chill in your fridge until the the temperature dips and the later hosing is starched. And then you can you can enjoy it and with your pretzels and your bratwurst.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So a lot of a lot of fun stuff. I'm excited. And you know, I I'm gonna say we're we're celebrating our uh the one year anniversary of me being your co-host coming up at the end of August. So we're gonna record that here and we're we're gonna try to get they don't know it yet. They don't know it yet. They're gonna listen to be like, what? So Matt and Robbie, Courtney's gonna be reaching out to you via However I feel like doing that. I was trying to come up with something witty via passenger pigeon. Uh ravens. I'm sending a raven. Yeah, sending a raven from Master Maester Courtney. I'm gonna be I'm gonna get another one of those uh those Ursa Minor bagels and be like an extra game.
SPEAKER_05Master Raven has come from the north. I believe this cream cheese has gone bad. Yeah. Or it's the diarrhea that is. Either way.
SPEAKER_02It's coming from the north.
SPEAKER_04My watch has ended. Yeah, so we're I mean, figure since we record here, we try to get those two jabronies on the show and ask them a bunch of questions.
SPEAKER_00Because they're part of our origin story.
SPEAKER_04They're part of our yes, they very much are. That's right. And if you're wondering what that is, we're gonna make you wait for another episode.
SPEAKER_00We've talked about it before. Yeah, okay, that's true. That's right. Yeah, I'll give one more shout out because I can't not do it. Grunge Unfugged. After this episode airs, they will be playing at Elm Creek Brewing on August 21st, and then the day after on the 22nd, they're at Steeltobering. Nice. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04That's all I got.
SPEAKER_00That's I think that's all all we have. It was sad to say goodbye to APN in Duluth. It's gonna be sad to say goodbye to this episode.
SPEAKER_04Yes. But it'll be nice to get another beer. Yeah, you've been without a beer for a while.
SPEAKER_05We've got to go together that's a little run it up, run it. Dan, where can people find you?
SPEAKER_04Not on stage anywhere anytime soon, I'll tell you that. Uh folks can find me at a onepintstand.com for my written content. Like I mentioned earlier, check out that list of favorite breweries. And anywhere you listen to your podcast, just search a one pint stand and you'll find all the episodes. I'm on YouTube now. Oh, yeah. Because I wanted to be hipping with it. So, and by saying that, I just nicked any chance I had of being cool. So, episodes are all up on YouTube. So, if you're more of a YouTube person, just search up a one pint stand on YouTube and subscribe. Yeah. How about you? Where can people find you?
SPEAKER_00You can find the brewery adventure on Instagram at the brewery adventure or the breweryadventure.com is our website with links to podcast episodes, previous episodes, all that good stuff. Links to a one pint stand, even. It's all there.
SPEAKER_04Crazy crazy.
SPEAKER_00Crazy crazy. We are gonna go get Dan another beer here at Wandering Leaf. I think they're still open for a little while longer. We haven't closed them down yet. It's only nine.
SPEAKER_04I think they close at ten.
SPEAKER_00We got plenty of time. Yeah. One more beer.
SPEAKER_04One more beer and more off the record Cleveland stories. We got a couple good ones.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. That's it for the brewery adventure. We will see you next time. Go visit your local craft brewery. Say hello to them. Get some beers. Hang out. Do your thing.
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_00Cheers!
SPEAKER_04Cheers! Ooh, nice.
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