Another Fun Beer Day

This past Saturday, I participated in another beer-themed day with a couple of my friends. It's something we like to do because it can be a lot of fun to plan and usually works out to be pretty affordable.

We started off with another free Summit brewery tour at 10:30am. Including this most recent visit, I've been on this tour 4 times. Each time I go, I learn another little detail (or two) that I hadn't known before. Of course we enjoyed 3 free beer samples after the tour and then visited the gift shop to purchase some Summit gear.

From Summit we headed over to Surdyk's, where they were having a free Oktoberfest beer tasting. There were many different tasty brews to sample and I enjoyed most of them. The most interesting part for me was participating in the Samuel Adams Beer Lovers Choice. This is the 6th year for this program, but my first year trying it. There are 2 sample recipes that Boston Beer wants you to try, then you enter your vote in a ballot box. The winning beer will be the next new recipe they add to their bottled lineup. Last year's winner was the Noble Pils. The contenders this year: Sample A - Belgian Style IPA, & Sample B - American Rye Ale. Both were good, but my vote went to Sample A.

After Surdyk's, we made our way over to Town Hall for a late lunch and some good brews. I quelled my hunger with the very delicious Seven Corners Burger. Rather than going with a couple pints to drink, I decided to get their 2 beer flights because I've only been to Town Hall once before. One flight has samples of five every-day brews, while the other has five available seasonals. All the beers were enjoyable and one from each flight really stood out in my mind: West Bank Pub Ale (every-day) and Thunderstorm (seasonal). The West Bank is a really floral, fruity, bitter (and sessionable at 4.8%) pale ale and the Thunderstorm is an ale brewed with orange blossom honey and lemongrass.

Our designated driver took us back to Saint Paul and dropped us off at the Hilton Garden Inn. We took it easy and relaxed there for a while before we walked over to Great Waters for dinner and beer. Their Pizza of the Week was chicken, bacon, and ranch, so I had to get it. Very good stuff. To drink, I had the Unkeldunkel Dunkelweizen, which was new to me. It was a tasty brew that contrasted well with my salty dinner.

That was a very fun, beer-filled day. I encourage any of you to try something similar. It is definitely a worthwhile experience.